[Jewelry making - Article 00563] - Re: [Orchid] Tension settings

[etienne perret]

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    Hi Dennis, Tension rings work successfully when there is enough
    tension or pressure on the gemstone from the two ends of the
    ring shank that come up to meet the stone. This can be
    accomplished in several ways; 1. The easiest is to use a metal
    with a great deal of regidity like stainless steel or titanium.
    Both have enough regidity in their normal state if you use a
    shank of sufficient thickness to work quite well as a tension
    ring. The German company Xen makes very nice steel tension rings
    set with small stones that retail for a couple hundred dollars. 

    2. The second way that I know of is to age harden or heat treat
    the metal to give it the regidity to functune as a tension ring.
    When gold or platinum are alloyed with certain components they
    have the potential of being age hardened to the point where they
    will function very well as tension rings. There are several
    companies in Europe and the USA using this technique. In the USA
     Stephen Kretchmer has a patent on the use of heat treatable
    alloys for the use of creating tension rings. 

    3. The third technique is to work harden the metal. Most of us
    have experienced how gold or other metals gets stiffer if you
    hammer on it and do not anneal it. This work hardening can be
    used to create enough regidity in the gold or platinum ring
    shank if it is thick enough and of an alloy that will work
    harden. Several German companies such as Niessing and Bunz have
    been using this technique for about 20 years. 

    Good luck this is an interesting setting technique that can also
    be used for other kinds of jewelry pieces as well. I suggest you
    look at the designs of a Dr. Fredrick Beecker of German who was
    working with tension settings almost 40 years ago. 


Cheers,
Etienne Perret
www.etienneperret.com
 

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