[Jewelry making - Article 01247] - Re: [Orchid] Appropriate gauge for flush setting

[Peter W . Rowe]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

>     It's not the AllSet part, it's the hammering part. A couple of
>     setters have said on this thread how to do it properly - cut the
>     bearing, insert the stone, rub it in. A good setter is able to set
>     a stone into a polished surface without disturbing the surface
>     around it, or not much. Now, I'm a pretty good setter, but not a
>     great one, and sometimes I need to resort to hammering to tighten
>     up stones, too, but that doesn't make it right 

    Personally, I always found the allset to be a rather clumsy tool. I
    prefer a good true running quick change handpiece over the #30, so
    the allset is a bother for me just to use that #30 handpiece, but it
    also usually seems overkill. If the idea is simply to control depth,
    I prefer good magnification, so I can simply SEE where I'm cutting. 

    And I've found the usual reason one might need to hammer the metal to
    tighten the setting is incorrect cutting of the seats. And here's
    where I differ from some other setters. I don't use a hart bur or
    setting bur to cut a seat with a distinct "shelf", at least not with
    diamonds. When I first learned the basics of pave setting, at a GIA
    stone setting class many years ago, I was taught to cut the seats
    with a bud bur, so the seat is a tapered hole, not a straight sided
    one with a distinct level seat already cut. instead, (and this
    sometimes takes a bit of cut, try, cut a bit more, etc, adjusting)
    you get the hole sized so you can then take a brass rod "pusher",
    and push the diamond fairly firmly down into that tapered hole. The
    edge of the diamond's girdle is the cutting tool that actually
    defines and cuts the actual seat the diamond sits on. If you push the
    diamond back out after doing this, it shows as a bright line in the
    tapered hole, and unlike any seat cut with a bur, it's a perfect, 100
    percent contact, exact seat for the stone. getting it so the tables
    are at the right height, and level, is what takes some practice. But
    once seated like this, even before burnishing or raising beads, one
    can take the ring or other jewelry, tip it upside down, and rap it on
    the benchtop lightly, and the stone will not move or fall out of it's
    seat, being held by friction on it's girdle. At this point, the
    amount of metal that then needs to be brought over the diamond to
    finish setting it, either by raising beads, or by burnishing the
    edge for a flush set, is much less than what might be needed with a
    seat cut with a hart bur, where the stone is not in such intimate
    contact with the metal. And because that metal, beads or burnished
    edge, is not trying to make up for the slghtly oversized seat from a
    hart bur, it's much less likely to loosen up with time, since now the
    metal actually holding the stone extends alll the way to the girdle.
    With hammered over metal, often there's a slight gap left inside the
    metal at the girdle, so as the top surface wears and weakens, the
    stone becomes free to move a little, and when that happens, it
    starts to make it's own seat larger via abrasion. 

    When I look at antiques with good pave work that has lasted the last
    hundred years, and occasionally have to replace broken stones or the
    like, it usually seems to me that the setters who did that work,
    seated the stones much the way I do. The seats usually are perfect
    fits for the girdles, little metal needs to actually come over the
    stone to hold it securely, and the stones have stayed in and tight
    for a long time. 

    Seating and setting stones like this is admittedly a bit slower (at
    least for me), than doing it via methods like using an allset tool,
    or cutting seats with a hart bur and "snapping" stones in, but for
    diamonds, at least, and usually hard stones like ruby and sapphire,
    it seems to me to produce better work. 

Hope that's of use.
Peter Rowe
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________