Emerald Stone Setting => 11 photo's

 As I described in a previous essay, setting Emeralds can be a very delicate project, but especially when they happen to be square.

 This is a real challenge when dealing with these 'delicate & soft' gems, as the Mohs Scale of Emerald Hardness is 6 out of 10, and a Diamond is 10.

 The Difficulty Scale is about 15, out of 10, I'm very serious with these numbers.

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 I usually line my stones in a row as I want to see how long in 'millimeters' the row of stones will be. (In Canada, we use the Metric system)

 I must first select if there any wider stones, if there are any, I will put them in the centre of the row. But never at the end, as the eyes will gravitate towards the centre of the setting.

 The very next step is to use a round bur of #003 or #004 and cut & shape the corners of the settings. 

 I WANT ALL OF THE METAL TO BE TOTALLY REMOVED from the 4 corners. This is to prevent any breakage when the stones are being set. This can & will happen so often.

 Once that the corners are cleaned then comes the next step and that is the long row of 'Girdle bearings'. Every aspect of 'cleaning' is so important as just one missed step can fracture a soft stone.

 

At each cleaning, please use your 10x power loupe and examine how the cleaning is being done. Never take any 'short-cuts' (this is really scary stuff here).

 "Breakage can happen without looking for it".

In this particular ring I will separate the claws further with a saw blade of  #004 thickness. Number #002 is too wide as we are only separating the settings, but not removing any metal.

 Make sure that the use of the saw blade 'cuts' straight down. In this photo, you can see that this wasn't the case, there was an error which I did on purpose, just to show how easily things can go wrong so fast.

When the stones are placed into openings, then you can bend the metal over each Girdle of every stone.

The stones must not be 'touching' if any of them are touching, you could very easily break two stones at once. I wrote that this a difficult setting process!!!

Try and keep a little space in between the stones, if you do then your setting problems will minimized.

In separating the individual end bezels I'd use a Triangular file of #4 cut to clean and maintain an even separation.

 In the side view there are some stones that are slanted, or just set with little care. I DID THIS ON PURPOSE just to show how easily things will go wrong.

 You can easily see how the saw-blade went askew. This is why you must be very diligent in everything you do in gemstone setting.

  Another error in 'saw-blade' cutting is shown here, plus the bearings for the girdle are also crooked and not in one straight line.

 I would prior to setting these delicate stones is to open the area for the stones. NEVER JUST SNAP THEM IN "breakage" is a bad friend.

 I would place (but not set) each stone, why? I need to know exactly how each stone is to be set.

 I set one stone and my metal-pusher touched one stone on the Table an look what happened? Can you see just how close the stones are? There is no space in between any of them. OUCH!

 This Emerald setting is not for the beginner, if you need to learn, experiment on Cubic Zirconia and on a silver ring. I did this 'experimenting' in my earlier years, but for this essay, I made numerous errors just for YOU.