[Jewelry making - Article 01258] - Re: [Orchid] Suggestions for stock to take to class

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     You don't need the thickness to hold the stone, so I assume it's a
>     question of looks, right? I'll have to give it a try. 

    It's both looks AND durability. Thin bezel stock may be fine in some 
    designs, but in others, especially in rings and with facetted stones,
    the bezel may be subject to substantial wear, and thin stock simply
    wears out, sometimes before the rest of the ring. Thicker stock
    won't. The trade off is that  setting a thick bezel is done
    differently. You don't just bend it over and  burnish. You're using a
    chasing tool or hammer handpiece to hammer the bezel top  surface
    pretty much straight down, which "upsets" it, moving metal over the
    stone. Only after it's pretty much over to the stone, do you then
    finish up cleaning  things with a burnisher or graver. If you look at
    commercially produced  jewelry, you'll find that these thicker bezels
    are more common than the thin  stock, simply because a production
    ring made with a 1 mm thick bezel wall can accomodate a certain range
    of stone size, not just one precise one. Perhaps the main reason this
    isn't so common in hand made fine art jewelry, is simply that setting
    these takes a bit more experience, and sometimes, in the case of
    using a hammer handpiece, a substantial investment in the tool.  But
    don't let that discourage you from learning this. Hammer handpieces
    are fast, and many setters use them. But that same speed can lead to
    mistakes too, and at least two of the  best setters I've ever met who
    set fragile costly stones in just about any  heavy bezel you could
    imagine, do it with a chasing hammer and chasing tools, not the
    automatic hammer handpiece. 

Peter

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