[Jewelry making - Article 01172] - Re: [Orchid] Appropriate gauge for flush setting

[jo haemer]

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Kirstin-

    Good for you to experiment with flush setting! 

    Always your metal has to be thicker than your stones are deep.
    Otherwise you have the culets poking through. 

    After drilling out where we want the stones,we cut the seat for the
    stone with a ball bur just a little bit smaller than the stone. Then
    we just kiss it with a bearing bur the same size of the stone and
    then just snap the stone into place and run a burnisher around the
    edge with a small oiled burnisher. We usually do this with diamonds.
    If you are using colored stones you'll have to be a little more
    gentle, orjust have spares on hand. Having calibrated stones makes
    it soooo much easier. Stones with too thick or thin a girdle are
    tough to get level. Get yourself a bunch of cheap calibrated c-zs or
    synthetics stones to experiment with. You'll have to mess us a few
    times to find YOUR best technique. 

    Equally important is the thickness of the bottom of your ring shank.
    When you flush or channel set stones the mounting is weakened where
    you have drilled through. If the bottom of your shank is the same
    thickness and width as the top of the ring, when worn the ring will
    want to bend at the weakest point,(the top), and you will have
    stones shifting and popping out. 

    So always lighten your shanks at the bottom when setting stones in
    the main body of the ring. 

Good luck and have fun.
Jo
www.timothywgreen.com
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