[Jewelry making - Article 00455] - Re: [Orchid] Inlay 24k gold into black onyx

[Hans Durstling]

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    Hi, Depending upon the kind of pattern you are aiming for it could
    be, should be, might be - possible to hammer set the gold (22k or
    more for softness) into carefully carved, smooth sided, slightly
    undercut, grooves and even perhaps into small areas in the stone. 

    I say this because I've just done some hammer settings of small
    transparent Mexican opals into carved agate using fine silver as the
    "surround" for the opal and with the whole assembly set in a dish of
    cold dop wax.(I think a picture might be helpful here; email me
    offlist if you'd like me to mail you a jpeg of the result). 

    The logic is that if hammer setting can be done with something as
    fragile as a transparent Mexican opal, it should work in onyx which
    is typically black-dyed agate, hence tough, and much less inclined
    to chip than opal. 

    I might add that I tried the same thing with obsidian. No go. In
    each case the opal survived but the obsidian split. 

Cheers,
Hans Durstling
normally Moncton Canada
presently and appreciatively in snowfree Sunland California

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