What bur to use: when, where & why? (26 photos)

 On a Diamond Setters bench, (like mine) will have a vast collection of burs. I will explain and 'bring these burs to life' in this critically important tutorial essay.

 All of these photos of burs were not from other setting benches but from my own private collection. Is this an expensive purchase? YES. If you don't have the right tools, change your profession.

 This is the sequential (less one) bur packet of round burs. You can even reshape them all for your "Cabochon Cutting" burs.

 Even my Bud-shaped burs are kept in a separate box of 'specialized burs'.

  

  I have another box of HSS burs, but these are of the smaller variety. The more tools and burs you eventually collect, the easier your job will be. Trust me.

   This box contains ONLY the "156C" burs. What does the letter "C" mean? This letter signifies that these burs are made of Carbide steel.

 YES, these teeth will get worn down very quickly and don't think of sharpening them, it's a waste of your time & money. Plus, the teeth are so close together.

This collection of burs 'is my family'. I respect that they can make me money.

 These are basically my 'Wax Carving' burs. They come in more sizes than shown, I have these to cut the insides of the waxes when needed.

 These are my 'best friends' as they prepare to do one thing and that is to create 'seats' for the Cabochon stone setting.

 These extra-large round burs start in sizes of .003 mm and finish at 8 mm. If you need them only once, then your purchase is well worth the $$$'s 

 These humongous-sized "High-Speed Steel" burs come in at a 90-degree angle and all are "DIAMOND SHAPED". 

 The Carbide "156-C" burs come in all sizes of 45-degree angles they 'are not diamond-shaped. (Please be fully aware of this bearing-cutting problem).

 I bought these extra-large "77B", Cup burs for one reason, what is that? I had a pile of Tube Settings to set and had to make 100% sure that they were perfectly round. 

 The costs were well worth the dollars in buying them, they were so much better than filing. Many of my setting 'companions' were amazed at these large sizes.

 

  These Tungsten tipped burs are GREAT, as they can even recut graver tips. YES, I used them many times just for this sole purpose. 

There is no longer any need to run over to the bench grinder, you can see up close where your modification of the graving shaping is cutting.

  These are the (modified) Cabochon burs that will prepare a 'seat' for that stone. All you do is hold your handpiece in a 100% vertical position and voila your 'bearing' is nicely created. 

 The flat shape of the round bur compliments the shape of the stone. That is why I bought a whole set of round burs and reshaped them on my bench grinder.

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  This will explain "HOW TO SHARPEN THE "H.S.S" TEETH".

(This simple process is not advisable on very small sizes.)

1) I want to see which tooth I'm re-cutting, I will 'ink' the required teeth.

2) Using my Corundum wheel, the outside edge (as shown) will be all that's necessary.

3) You need to only cut the area as shown, why is this? When the teeth are rotating, only the shiny areas need to be worked on. You have no reason to recut the Pavillion (lower section).

  In this photo that I took, you can see the many teeth that need repairing, now!

This is my much-needed Corundum (container), as it gives all of the details.

    

  Here is my "Corundum" cutting wheel cutting into the High-Speed Steel bur.

 I'm ONLY reshaping the outside cutting edges. Anywhere else is not warranted.

 I've 'inked' the teeth that needed to be 'touched'. I prefer a cloured ink as I can observe if the cutting wheel is doing what's necessary.

  

 How often will this process be needed? Only as often as necessary. Each time you cut into the bur, the overall size is slightly reduced. DON'T KEEP DOING  THIS CUTTING.

 You can easily see how worn down these teeth can get. If the teeth touch any hard metal alloys, STOP and examine them. Fix them a.s.a.p. I don't leave this for later, as you want to have sharp-cutting teeth at all times.

Don't repair the smaller burs, it isn't necessary for the time being lost.

This is a '156C' bur, HSS burs are not really necessary in dealing with stones this size. (The stone size shown here is 1.25mm)

 This is my example of never leaving badly looking burs for afterwards. I needed this exact size bur NOW, but it wasn't good to use. (I wasted valuable time).

This bur has a shallow 'Pavilion' depth, I'll only use it for creating seats for gemstones.

This bur is what is required for setting Diamonds. It has all the necessary requirements for accurate diamond setting.

 Bud-shaped burs are great to have, as they have good cutting angles to be used below the 'Girdle' of the stone.

 Where can I use this ultra-large bur? Anywhere that accepts a wide cutting hole, I could even modify this into a Cabochon cutting bur. 

 The possibilities are really endless, just use your imagination and experiment.

 Hoping that you had an enjoyable time reading my essay as I did writing about these specialized burs.