Diamond Setting is not only “Prong & Claw Setting”. There are many disciplines to make your hand-made jewellery to be a “one-of-a-kind”.
In this essay, we will delve into one of these disciplines named “Gypsy-Flush Gemstone Setting!”
I'm going to start in the wax setting then explain the process of "setting stones in metal”.
I have 18 hand-drawn diagrams which will make this essay much easy to follow.
The “Difficulty Rating of Gypsy/Flush Setting is approximately 6.5 out of 10”.
The First topic is to "Examine the setting of stones in Wax"
The hole of the wax must be 100% clean with no residue...anywhere!
As you can see (with your 10 power loupe) there are still some rough edges around the hole, "this is not a good sign". What you see here will be rough edges in the metal, all of these must be made clean with your "wax-carving" bur.
If you find that you can't clean it up, you can do what I do (sometimes) and that is to fill up the hole with your "heating pen" and start again, simple as that!
This placement, or attempting to put a stone in your wax ring is not done correctly. There should be no rough edges of wax around the stone. What would I do?
This wax stone-setting is just not acceptable, we all need to practice. In wax, nothing is lost. It's better to make a little error in wax than have the same error in metal.
This wax setting is another example of poor setting practices. There must not be any residue, or "extra wax" remaining anywhere around the hole. When you remove the stone, you MUST ALSO KEEP THE STONE 100% CLEAN.
In my blog, I previously wrote an essay about "Setting Cubic Zirconia stones in Wax". That essay can be of much help to you in applying the same information to this essay that you are now reading.
This hole is nice and clean and ready to receive the stone for setting.
Hand-Drawings to help you in "Gypsy - Flush Setting"
The "Table" of the stone must be lower than the surrounding metal. My preference should be a minimum of 1.00 mm lower than the surrounding ring metal.
Your "156-C" bur comes with three names, 1) "Under-Cutting", 2) "Bearing-Cutter"
and lastly, the 3) "Heart-Shaped" bur comes in at a 45degree angle and starts to cut a bearing around the hole. The letter "C" means it is made of Carbon steel metal. The teeth are much closer together than the High-Speed Steel bur. Please do not use the HSS bur on any Gypsy-Flush Setting anywhere, and at any time.
The "156C" Carbon steel bur gives you a clean & much more uniform cut.
This photograph helps you figure out just how deep your bur should be in the cutting.
What size of bur would you need? I would use a bur 75% smaller than the size of the stone.
For example: If the size of the stone is 3.00 mm, then I would use a bur of 2.25 mm for the drilling.
I would recut the bearing to match the angles of the stone "Pavillion" that's going into the metal.
This picture shows just how important "equal depth" around the hole should be.
If the "bearing-cut" is not in the same depth (around the hole), the stone will appear to be crooked in the setting. What happens is that you won't be able to correct it. This can be the most irritating and annoying aspect of the Gypsy / Flush Setting.
What you must do is to carefully remove the stone, but this can be a 100% challenge. You must plug up where the unequal area is and start again!!!
"This is the 'make or break', aspect of this style of setting!"
I want the "bearing cut" to be exactly the same depth all around the setting hole. How deep into the wall, should the bur be cutting
As I mentioned before, I want the "Gemstone-Table" not to be at the same height as the surrounding metal. It must be at least 1.00 mm lower at all times.
Another thing to watch out for, the "Culet" or the point of the stone MUST NEVER BE EXPOSED!
Why is this so important? You don't want the Culet to cut into the person's finger, as this will happen 100% of the time.
With the stone on a piece of soft wax, tilt the stone on an angle, and carefully place the stone into the hole, (as being shown) and have the stone gently resting in the new bearing cut.
With your "Reciprocating Hammer" apply sufficient power in the hitting, to move the metal down unto the stone.
"DO NOT LET THE HAMMER-HITTING GET NEAR THE FRONT TIP OF THE METAL". Have the Hammer-Anvil start hitting just where the Girdle of the stone might be located.
Have your Hammer Anvil hit on an angle of at least 45 degrees, but it mustn't be held at a vertical angle.
"You want the metal to be pushed towards the stone", but never down unto the stone!!!!
Examine to make sure that there aren't any spaces between the "hammered-down metal" and the stone. If there are, repeat the hitting areas once more.
You must now carefully remove all of the hitting marks, scratches wherever you can see!!
With one of your two gravers of your choice run your Flat, or your H.S.S. "Onglette #2 graver along the inner circle of the metal that is surrounding the stone.
My formula or method of cutting is like this "CUT, ROTATE YOUR RING, CUT, ROTATE YOUR RING, CUT", (ad infinitum)
Just to repeat a few very important setting notes in the next few photographs;
Do not rotate your cutting bur too fast, if you do, you just won't have the opportunity in getting the bur to cut into the metal, why?
The fast-rotating bur will only have its teeth SLIDE across the metal, but never getting a chance to dig into the metal. (I know this from experience from my earlier stone setting days).
Your Onglette #2 graver should take 3-4 cuts to go around the small circle. Your graver face must be at a 45degree angle. The angle of the Bright-Cut in reference to the metal wall is also at 45degrees.
Our main purpose now is to remove any rough-looking metal after your Reciprocating Hammer has done its work!
I'm now using my favourite "Snap-On", Emery, "Medium" grit, and carefully removing any uneven levels of metal.
I will use my Pumice Wheel of #180 grit and use the wheel at a horizontal position and as well as Vertical position to smooth any rough textures from the Emery Wheel lapping.
Now as the last process in any cleaning, is to use the "#1,000 grit, Pink-coloured, Pumice Polishing Wheel". This will make the surface of the metal smooth and preventing you not to use the large polishing cloth wheels.
As the diagram explains...DO NOT SPEED YOUR MOTOR!
The only sure way of removing these pinholes wisely & carefully is to use your fantastic "Medium grit, Emery Wheels" that we used before.
If the ring has this Gypsy Setting, that is Dome-Shaped, well then let's all keep it that way.
I don't want to have any flat surfaces with a dome-shaped ring, would you?
A few more Diamond Setting notes:
Finally, in closing, this type of Diamond Setting is one of a few setting styles that needs much thinking prior to starting each step in setting for this ring.
Keep your bench of tools clean and orderly. Even after my 63 years of Diamond Setting, I keep my bench clean and orderly.
I know just where each tool is being kept. All of my gravers are kept sharp and in a pristine condition, just for the next setting project.
This Difficulty Level for "Gypsy/Flush Setting" at a 7.0 out of 10!
Please excuse my lack of powers of drawing, I'm not a "Mr. Michelangelo" as I leave the power of drawing to him. He wasn't a Diamond Setter.
This is my 129th essay as it took me an estimated 4-5 days of picture-taking, drawing diagrams, and writing, re-writing, editing & more editing.
No matter how close you need to have your stones, just be careful with the metal in between. This is where the "skill of cleaning" needs constant attention & care.
I often upgrade my skills, by using different emery and pumice wheels that are being shown in my tool suppliers' stores. I NEVER buy my tools online, why is that? I must "feel & touch" to see if the newer tools are to my liking. What I see on a website may not be exactly what I want. In my city of Toronto, Canada we are blessed with 5-6 major tool suppliers.
In this photograph, you can see the Bright-Cutting around each hole. This must not be overlooked, I've seen many 'setters' just not bother with this intricate process.
I care to make every setting project just as 100% perfect as I can. This makes a difference in the finished item.
All of the three stones are of the same level and you can see the inner flange of the Bright-Cutting. This is not an easy technique to master!
Every stone has the Bright-Cutting technique done to it!
This one stone took me about 1.5 HOURS. It started out from a plain ring with no holes drilled. I showed it to my jeweller, he was impressed at what I did.
The Difficulty Scale for this Pear-Shaped Amethyst would be a "36 out of 10".
These are genuine stones and the chances of breaking a stone are quite high.
As this is a domed ring, the dome curve gave me a challenging time in getting much metal over the stone on the sides.
If you have any questions, please email me at "gerrylewy18@gmail.com".
A friend of mine asked me about Gypsy-Flush Setting, this essay was the answer for her, although it took me almost 3 weeks to write, edit, take photographs, and rewrite, take more photographs, edit again. Then proofread about 10 times before I hit the "Publish' on my blog site.
This is my usual writing schedule, once in a while I get a few readers. In the past 2 years, I've gotten 45,500 readers & growing larger!
No comments:
Post a Comment