"Half-Round bur, for Cabochon Setting!"

 A little invention of mine from many years ago, is a 'Half-Round shaped bur'. It is very easy to create on your bench-grinder. Where can it be used, basically in setting Cabochon stones. The following  many photographs & texts will explain this process further. 

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   “Half-Round, Round Bur Used for Setting Cabochon Gemstones!”

 Although this might seem like a long title, but the application is rather simple, why so?The very first thing is to measure your Cabochon stone in millimeters. The reason for this is that all burs are all measured in Metric. For example; a bur number of #050 is really 5.00mm's in diameter.

  “THINK METRIC, AT ALL TIMES!”Another point is please avoid asking the tool-supplier for a “half-round bur”, why not? The simple answer is because there aren't any, you have to make one yourself ! “I'm going to do what? I'm gonna make a “half-round bur”, don't  worry,  I will guide through this whole simple process. All you need are a few simple tools; a bench-grinder with little bulbs for up-close viewing! A pair of safety-glasses. A pin-vise to hold your bur while shaping! Not too mention a cup of water, this is to keep your bur 'cool to the touch'!

 Let's start by measuring your stone; Calculate the distance from the top of the Cabochon to bottom, the circumference of the base. Now determine the height from the base to the start of the curve. Is this important? Yes for the first few times, after a period of some weeks, you can just do this by 'eye-measuring' these distances! 

 How thick must the bezel wall be? No thinner than 1.0 mm but high enough to envelope the curve of the stone. I believe the height of the 'bearing-groove' to the tip of the bezel should be about 1/3 of the height of the stone.

 You've now made all kinds of measurements, bought all of the burs, reshaped many of them and now you're ready to cut a bearing-cut or inner-groove!

 How many burs would you buy, in case one bur is not cutting well? Just don't keep it, throw it away, use another bur that you bought. I always have 'duplicates' or even 'triplicates' of the bur sizes. I always allow this, in case of a bur getting worn down during this important bearing-cutting process.

 To start, put your new full shaped bur into you pin-vise, finger-tight the vise! Start your new bench-grinder, put on your safety-glasses, have your container of water with-in finger reach. The water is to keep the bur cool, not allowing it to heat up. Sit comfortably & lets start.

 What you must do is to not remove any metal beyond 50% of the 'round shape'. As this will be the shape of your intended Cabochon stone, keep your bur cool! If it gets hot, it will change colour & loose it's tensile strength! Keep rotating your bur & keep the bur flat underneath, this so very important. Stop your grinding when you reach the 50% being removed.

 You must do this grinding, in increments of 2-3 actions, to one dunking in water..gotta keep the bur temperature cool to touch! The second photo below shows how the burned bur looks.

 WARNING: Please use your safety glasses on during this procedure. This to protect your eyes. I keep an estimated 30 burs of all sizes in case one bur gets worn down, you have another of similar size. If you find that your active bur is no longer cutting, stop & throw it away, get another. Remember no tool-supplier has these in their inventory, only YOU now have these burs, these are your 'new friends'!
How can you tell if you bur-teeth are worn down? If the bur is turning but not cutting or just sliding, stop the bur, examine it. Look for any shiny surfaces on the edge of the bur, if there are any shiny edges, don't waste any more time, throw it away. These just cannot be repaired!
  The next step is to prepare the Tube-setting for the Cabochon Stone., this is somewhat easy! On my Difficulty Scale out of 10, this process is rated in at about 6.5, this also includes the bur-reshaping. I suggest a few practice attempts, just to get the 'feel' of what to do.
 The next step is to determine how low the Cabochon stone must be in the Tube-setting! I want the stone to be as low as the beginning of the stones' curve. Keep your loup nearby and examine this depth. Get the correct size of bur against the stone and start drilling in 1/3  increments around the top 1/3 of the bezel wall. Hold your bur in an upright position, don't lean the rotating bur to one side, as the stone will then sitting crooked.
 Examine your progress, place your stone into it's 'new home', see if it's sitting flat. If you're satisfied, you can now start the pushing over of the metal to envelope the curved surface. Start now to push over the metal with a 'non-metal' pusher. I suggest for practical reasons, use only a Brass, or Copper pusher. If you use a steel pusher you might just slip and damage the stone.     
On the very top of the pushers, I have another little technique and that is to hit hard the tip of the rod with a Pillar file #1 or #2. This gives the pushing a rough texture to prevent any slips that might ruin your stone.
 You now can easily set a Turquoise, Opal, Coral or a even a Pearl. Don't use a file, in case you slip...good-bye stone..:>(
 After everything now has been completed! You can now use a “Flat-Faced, Pumice wheel”
 of #180 grit, then use a Pink, Pumice wheel of #1,000 grit as this wheel is like polishing.

How to Bright-Cut?

Now that you have a great looking pair of Onglette gravers. So how do you hold the graver while it's in your hand? If you read the scanned page shown, your question can be answered,

here!!!

Pumice (#180 grit) wheel cleaning!

 One of the final aspects of Diamond Setting is to clean all of the little marks left by your tools, which are now on the metal. How do you clean these markings? So very easy. I prefer only the #180 grit Flat & Tapered Edge wheels. I use both shapes, or if necessary just one, your decision!
 I prefer to finger-hold the ring, as I can rotate this item where it's necessary to gain better access!

"How do you clean an Oil-Stone?"

 The photograph of the scanned page will answer your immediate question. 'Cleanliness' is a priority!
Just apply liberal amounts of 'lighter-fluid' to the surface of the stone and let that liquid settle in & on the stone. After a few moments, let the your strong magnet glide over the oil-stone..and "viola!"
 You can see the resulting action so much of the steel shards are now being lifted up from the stone. I'd do this a few more times, even with the liquid. You just gotta get the oil-stone near perfectly clean.
 The metal on the stone came from your gravers leaving little subtle amounts of steel firmly entrenched or embedded into the pores of the stone..A real dirty YUK job!

Drilling holes for stone setting!

Prior to any drilling of holes, the question arises..."Where do I drill?" In the scanned page that you are viewing, I set the large centre stone first, any rough filing can be done here & now. Afterwards it's not good. Just read the prepared text on the two sheets as this should answer some of your questions.

"Setting Stones in Wax!"

 Setting stones in wax is the 'norm' today and for many years into the future. I bought a 220 power digital microscope and used it exclusively for this setting topic. Many years ago wax setting was worked on in secret, what was so important?

 The following group of photographs show exactly how this process holds the stone in place. 

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1) There must be no signs of dirt on the stones, if so, you will have metal casting on top of that stone.

2) Don't bury the stone into the wax, it'll be extremely cost prohibitive to remove them after casting.

3) Examine every wax setting that you perform.

4) Keep your warm fingers off of the wax, as your finger-heat could bend the wax. Put the wax on a wooden dowel.

5) There is absolutely no need to bend over any wax, as the wax doesn't bend.

6) What keeps the stone in place? When the 'wax-pen' warms the stone, the actual weight of the stone will do it's own placing into the wax, allowing the stone to rest in place. DO NOT PUSH THE STONE INTO THE WAX!

7) All you do is to warm the stone, as it just might move around before cooling down!

8) Make sure that none of the stones are sitting crooked, just use a little tool (?) & move the stone!

9) How do you know when the stone IS IN THE WAX? When you can see a liquid forming underneath, that is the melting wax touching the stone, then just quickly remove your heating pen. When it cools, the stone will be locked into place...all this takes is a few seconds!

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Antique & Arte-Deco, Diamond Setting!

 As we have now "CAD" (Computer Aided Designing) "Setting Stones in Wax" & "Laser Welding", we will continually create new technology in being able to set Diamonds. But I'm from a recent era where "Bright-Cutting" was all done by hand. Even the flex-shaft was only a recent invention. Circa 1940's, or 82 years ago!
 When I had my own office, I had two cameras all within hands reach & many of my 'archived' photographs were taken during those fantastic years! On some interesting days, my clients asked me to remove all of the diamonds so they could refine the metal for a few dollars. Before they were removed, I photographed them all at every conceivable angle, just to keep those hard-labours seen and appreciated.  Some of these might be duplicated, but these are best under different lighting.
 To appreciate & capture our past, I wanted to take as many of the photo's as I could. These interesting photographs are in no sequential order, but capturing the simplest of tasks from the jeweller, is almost unknown today.
 Can you imagine that to set 33 diamonds and all of the stones were not fully round (Mein-Cut or Rose-Cut) & some of them actually had little corners on them. (The "girdling processes" was not as up to date as they are today). Each hole had to be literally carved to the shape of each stone & all of this was done by one graver (as shown) my teacher gave me his graver it called a "Bull Stick".

 One Eternity ring with those 33 stones took almost 2 days from the first stone, to the very last.
I know this information for a fact, as my teacher was working in those days and there were no burs to speak of to help him set stones in Pave, or Bright-Cutting designs. We have come a long way since then, but I have the photographs to show you how the jeweller created his fine quality jewellery....just simply amazing shots!!! Hope you enjoy them, as I do still now!

"Guinness World Record", May 30, 2013.

 When I went to Tucson, Arizona one year, a fellow gave me a 'gift', it was a gambling poker-chip!

I took it back home and looked at it for many weeks. I said to myself "something is terribly missing here", then my creative mind began started to work on a simple prototype. After an estimated 8-9 variations on a simple theme, I came to grips that I was onto something rather spectacular. A local Toronto trade magazine owner suggested that I contact the '"Guinness World Record" office in London, England, which I did!

 After many telephone calls and emails I had an opportunity to put my name into the record books.
As nothing has ever been fabricated like this before, the GWR office had to implement a new ruling and category. I said to myself, it is all because the "Gift & the Skill" of jewellery fabrication and of course, learning how to be a Diamond Setter.

 This alone guided me along the 3 years of creating something extremely valuable. I had two private diamond companies lend me their diamonds for the official appraisal. Then I had to obtain signed notices from my many jewellers who had attest that what I had created, they had their hand in putting this together, every page had to be individually signed & dated...such a mind-boggling process!

 BTW, this prototype which is now in silver and weighs 75 grams, the original weighed 136 grams of 22 karat gold!!! When you even hold the silver, you know that you are holding something that is so very heavy, nothing light! The original was unfortunately melted down as I had no reason to keep it. The silver prototype is all I need these days.

 The number 8 (shown) was created for the 'anticipated' Asian market, that (8) number has 66, 1.50mm stones. The number 7 (shown) has only 49 stones..all are with "shared beads" & designed via CAD. The time to set those two little numbers took me 2.5 hours. The 'numbers' were not soldered, but Laser welded. As the soldering to the base would take too much heat to start the solder to flow. How am I going to join the pieces together? I drilled into the base of the disk, little holes & underneath each number are little mini-posts & these mini-posts fit inside of those holes.

 My bench-jeweller had no idea on how to join these two numbers together to the base, it was my idea and then he said "Gerry, I wouldn't have thought of this, great idea!" The rest is history!
 Remember this, learn as much as you can in this remarkable profession, and you too, one day will  achieve greatness, just let your mind work "out of the proverbial box" here are some photographs.