Diamond Setting Technique: "Modified, Cut-Down"

                         

 This process of setting is basically a great setting technique for wedding bands. It is rather a simple & easy pattern to create. But one thing, this is not for the hobbyist or absolute beginner in Gemstone Setting, so very sorry!

 This setting process took me many years to perfect and went through many variations all trying to achieve what you are about to learn & observe today! Some aspects of my earlier versions are still being used, but I'm trying to make it less difficult for you to learn!

 The Scale of Difficulty is about an 9.5 out of 10. There will be many times you will be frustrated in your results, but this is your fantastic "Learning Curve".

 Previous experience in using a Graver: This is now estimated at 3-4 years (or more)! 

"Frustration Level' is rated at 15 out of 10!

 What tools do you need:

Graver #1, or #2 with a rounded tip..(this will be shown at the end of this photographic essay!

Very wide Flat graver (estimated) at #42 in width!

Flat Graver of #40 for all of the flat bright-cutting ..all are to be shown in this essay!

"Inside-ring clamp" this 'clamp acts like a vise' and not allowing any side-movement while setting!

Graver #1 for initial cutting around the 'wire-hooking, mini-claws' that will hold the stone!

Bud-shaped burs: I suggest #006 & #008.

100% Patience is required:

  On the two vertical lines, I use a bud bur #006 just beside the round stone hole!

      

 In this photograph, you can see just where the #006 bud-shaped bur is starting to cut. Please make one cut..DEEP! A lot of aggressive graver work will be stemming from this one bud-bur cut  

  Just continue from one side of the ring to the other, but make it DEEP! Once the bud-burring has been accomplished, place your stone in the desired hole for securing!

  With your very wide Flat #42 graver, twist the blade so metal makes little 'hooks' that will curl over the four corners! Your very wide flat graver rests in the bud-shaped recess and allows you to twist metal over the stone. Once this has been done, call this setting exercise, "half-finished"!!!

 Try not to use a genuine Emerald, why so? The aggressive touching or Onglette cutting might easily damage this very delicate stone.

 With your Onglette #1 (very thin) graver, cut right beside each of the "twisted curl-beads". Thus leaving a thin piece of metal securing each corner of the stone!

  The next step is to flange the metal with your Flat Graver #40 and Bright-Cut as being shown.

 There will be many times you will have multiple areas that are very far apart. I use my #40 Flat graver and again flange or Bright-Cut every piece of metal. I'd even use my half-round Onglette#2 and cut a smooth line and separating other lines in the metal..(shown here)!!!

 In this "out of sequence' photograph you can see where my thin graver is now starting to cut lines.

 I should warn you that the holes & spaces in this picture are too far apart, this will lead to much anger & frustration. I'd ask you to experiment and drill your holes closer together. Your 'learning curve' is now starting, agree?

 Now you can see what problems you might run into if the two stones are to far apart...too much space and much Bright-Cutting just to cover up this error in drilling of your holes. Get the stones much closer!

 This end stone is only a 1.47mm's in size, try not to use any stone smaller than this size!

 I'm now using a 'half-round' shaped Onglette #2, as the space in between the 'corner curls-beads' are too narrow to use a Flat graver. There is just no area to do any fancy cutting..:>(

 If you have a 'barrel-shaped' stone. I truly suggest you contour the inside of the hole with many little bearing cuts! I'd be using my Hart-Shaped, under-cutting"156C" to make the appropriate cuts, this will keep the stone at a flat configuration and not getting crooked/tilted...not nice to see!

  Please be so very careful with any soft stone that you must set. The chances of ruining those stones are 85% in this style of setting. Blue-Sapphire, Diamond, Ruby and Cubic-Zirconia are just easy & great to use.

 In this interesting picture, you can see how the half-round graver is now starting to make those little deep polished cuts.

 In this picture you can see the bearing cut, to be used only if your stone is not 'diamond shaped'.

 Don't hesitate if you feel that you can't use your Flat graver, then please use your Half-Round graver instead. I do, and the results are still great for the overall eye-appeal.

 From a distance, all of the cuttings still looks great. But you still should Bright-Cut any where you can. I still like to have 'sharp & clean' cuts...everywhere!!!

 These two Ruby stones are really to far apart, even for me! I was not 100% satisfied, but after so many years, I experimented and cut lines to remove any flat surfaces on the ring.

 To avoid this problem, I suggest to drill one hole at a time and not to rush this setting project.
 "Thinking ahead is such of a time-saver".

  By having your two stones so far apart, can lead to much frustration at your bench. Don't get discouraged, you are learning a very difficult technique.

 From the curl-beads I used my graver and "Cut-Down" towards the edge of the ring. Hence the name of this technique.."Cut-Down".

 With my modified narrow Onglette, I cut lines into a "V" shape pattern. As shown many times in this essay before, your experience at graver cutting is now helping you immensely.

 Bright-Cut every line that is seen! Even if that line is far away from the two stones. Having a Bright-Cut makes everything look so much better.

  These three photographs show how the graver is held at a 'high-angle' and slightly rotating while being rounded on your #800 Polishing Paper.

 DO NOT USE ANY EMERY PAPER, the rounded graver tip needs to be highly polished and smoothed. But never leaving a dull & rough texture, you want a smooth bright & shiny surface in between the wire-claws. Your polishing machine can't reach inside these cuts, now YOU must to do this yourself.

 To achieve this highly polished graver tip, you must be rocking the blade from one side to the other, You should now have a nicely rounded and a very smooth graver point!!!

 This has been one of the most difficult setting techniques that I can think of. Explaining the important steps many times, you can now easily duplicate what I just showed you and will become almost 'second-nature'. Gerrylewy18 (at)gmail.com.

"Computer Aided Designing" (aka CAD) for easier Diamond Setting!

 When I was learning to be a Diamond Setter back in early 1960's, a 'model-maker' would sit for 2-3 DAYS and hand-sculpture one single (bracelet) charm. Times have changed and now it possible to make the same creation in only a few minutes! All of this using a basic C.A.D. program! 

 In my inventory of CAD related photographs that I've been collecting on this topic, I going to share these with you now!

 The following pieces could not have been made by hand, if so, these would have taken many days just for one piece. From the computer being programmed, these can be formed with a '3-D printer' overnight, the next morning they are ready for metal casting!

Tools that are needed: 1)Your "Computer Aided Design" program! 2)Your willingness to explore different styles!

Instead of "Rough-Cutting" a pattern for setting, then "Bright-Cutting" afterwards! C.A.D. has allowed 'us' to overcome many tedious tasks and now creating some wonderful patterns! 
 Scale of Difficulty; This all depends on the complexity of the pattern you need.

                                           Here are a few of them!..ENJOY!

 This little project used the customers own Pearl and 16 "Princess-Cut" diamonds using CAD!

                                           

 This is a photo of the 'program menu' that shows the gram weight, number of stones, total carat weight with different karats that could be needed and the stone sizes. This detailed menu makes pricing so much easier, no more errors and guesswork! 

 If you wanted an "Azure' inside-pattern, so be it, done! All measurements & designing was done in a few minutes. I decided on 33 stones for each of the two rings named "Waterfall", as it looks like 'water falling off the sides of the ring'..:>)

 This was a section for an unusual necklace that my student client won "First Place, with Honours" in a school in Toronto. I was pleased to teach her the detailed techniques in using stone placements in using CAD, she works now for Tiffany's in London, England!...BTW, I did all of the stone setting!

 I lost count how many stones were being used...many! I remember this took me over 3 hours of setting for all two pieces.

 Here is my "Guinness World Record" poker-chip. Although this is only a replica from the original, I keep this to show how a computer did all of the multi-piece designing. This weighs in a 75 grams of silver, the original weighed only 136 grams, of 22 karat gold.
 There are 66, 1.25mm stones in the number "8". 

The "number 7" has 49, 1.5 mm stones. All of the stones had 2 'mini-claws' for each stone being set. If just one claw got broken...(let's not think of the problem!)The setting used was a "Shared-Claw" technique.

  
This was a 3-piece construction..(the main disk, plus the two numbers) and using a Laser soldering process. This disk would have to be heated up too much and many problems would then ensue.

 This is the side view of the Poker-Chip. Each of the 17 stones were 6.25 mm's in size.

This disk, is just but one of 7 pieces all created by C.A.D. and was made to worn as a necklace!

 This was a medallion for the "Miami Dolphin' owner! I had to decide where all of the different stone sizes were to be set.

Any comments please email me "gerrylewy18 (at) gmail.com"

Diamond Setting with a "Pave' pattern", prior to casting!

 In mostly every opportunity, it is preferred to have a 'plan of attack"! In this case, even laying out a series of stones on a wax template this is quite acceptable!

 I (literally) found a very simple wax plate and located the center of that plate by drawing two lines and finding the exact center. So far, this was the easy part. Next came deciding what stone sizes to use and where each of them should be placed and finally set!

 I was not too concerned as to how the wax plate now looked. For the placing of the 97 stones, I decided as a 'temporary measure' to melt three plates of wax together, why is this? My warm fingers would be distorting the large wax plate and then ruin the overall shape! 

 The Difficulty Scale is about 5/10

 I had a selection of large stones already at my disposal and preferred to use the drawing of the two lines as a guide for the stone layout. This was so very important for the whole Pave'effect.

 Here is the finished 'layout of stones'. I even printed out a large 8" x 11" page to have as a guide at my bench and be at 'arms reach', while the drilling for each of the 97 stones!!!

 Can you see just where the biggest stones are being used? I'm trying to fill up as much space as I can on the plate. The human eye gravitates towards the center of the plate and slowly looks outward!

 Those two lines were so darned important in the initial layout. Without them, I'd be totally lost and would be ruining the whole Pave' effect. I might even find more space for smaller stones.

 I just detest 'open spaces', as I want the stones to be literally all 'Girdle-to-Girdle'. Ninety-seven (97) stones will be the minimum amount to be used!

 At this point, I decided to visualize how and where the sprues will be placed for the even flow of metal in the casting investment. I prefer to have thicker sprues, as I have only one opportunity in having this wax-form to be effective.

 This is the side-view showing the sprues and having the metal flow easily around the plate. Remembering all of the unused sprues will be removed after the casting. This might look like a  disgusting sight, but once cast, everything will look much nicer as many of the sprues will be removed. I'm very cautious with the flow of metal in the centrifugal casting apparatus!

 I initially intended to start to drill some of the setting holes, but I backed off. I found that the plate was slowly getting bent out of shape. I'll be drilling, with my twist-drill...ONLY IN THE METAL!

 Here are my little packets of CZ's all in separate bags. I will be using them continually while drilling in the metal, but not in the wax!

                     

  I initially saw this bracelet, but after looking at it, I saw no composition in how the stones were being set. It appeared to me just a mediocre design of setting stones.

 I thought at that moment, that I can do much better by thinking on a better display of stones. Initial appearance is so much more important. I call this the "WOW-effect"! This store-bracelet hadn't that effect on me, do you agree with me?  

 In closing; as a Diamond Setter I've seen some fantastic and gorgeous looking "Pieces of Art". This particular item totally failed in that for me! (I have other choice words, but not for this essay!)
 Any comments; "gerrylewy18 (at) gmail.com"