I've shown you in many previous tutorial essays how gemstone setting is done. These same photos will be interesting as I'm explaining how they are got into my blog as 'new' topics. Some of these are not in sequence but these were also chosen for their "Degrees of Extreme Difficulty".
From my 'photographic library', I've selected at random why these were chosen for your new files.
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Prior to any Emerald Pear Shape setting, my client asked me to recut all of the diamond areas. The reason being was that the first setter gave little care given to his stone setting.
I had to carefully recut the 'Bright-Cutting' everywhere, then the Bezel frame was dismantled for me.
I wanted to have ultra close contact to the Bezel area
Many hammer hitting areas are literally ruined just because the operator neglected to keep the hammer-face in pristine condition. What is a defect on the hammer will be immediately hammered into the Gypsy or any Bezel areas.
Here I used a "Drafting Pencil" with a grit of #2, why is this so important? The pencil rubbing actually fills in the pores of the polishing paper to a degree that will make any paper (of your choosing) smoother. Thus enabling to polish the graver steel more usable.
I 'found' this clamp in a tool shop but again I improved on the designing by adding a wooden dowel that I found in a hardware store. Thus leaving no reason to use any GRS or shellac to hold intricate earrings, great idea?
This is MY INVENTION from (20+) years ago, I totally removed the top half of a round bur. Thus leaving it's many teeth to be used again for one purpose..."Tube Settings".
The flat areas with the exposed teeth give access to create 'seats' for any round stone.
The removing is done on any bench grinder. This simple bur-tool cannot be found in any tool supplier. I have a large assortment of these 'modified burs' ready for the next setting job.
In this photo I am displaying the widths of my regularly used gravers. The graver #0 is solely used in preparation for Pave' metal cutting. Why would anyone use an extremely large & thick graver to cut fine metal areas?
I am showing you 'the reader', how I use an Onglette graver #2 that is highly polished to create a finely cut circle around any Gypsy Setting. As you can also observe just how deep the stone is, with this depth a good opportunity is given to cut the metal. The 'Table' of the stone is made lower just for this opportunity.
Please DO NOT USE ANY FLAT GRAVER, if you do, there will be 'faceting' inside the areas where the Flat graver blade will make contact along the stones' facets. UGLY!
I'm attempted to make a 'clean cut' with my thicker #2 Onglette graver. As you can see that the corners let much to my in then using a thinner graver blade namely #0 or a #1.
On ANY claw setting there will be residual slivers of metal on just one side of each claw. This due to the rotation of the HSS (High Speed Steel) bur. Please remove these slivers NOW. You may use a Pumice wheel, but not a file, why? The filing will leave striations where the teeth made contact where the filing was done.
This is my HSS '45-degree' angle bur that I use continually to prepare seats for any engagement stone.
I used this same bur when I started to set the 13, 1 carat stones on my Guinness World Record disk. With this bur, there were no chances of making errors in the cutting angles.
It is safe to assume that all of these large stones are sitting equally and at the same height.
Here is a close-up of the mini-clamp. At the bottom of the base are little pins that my jeweller soldered, I use them as method to 'hold & secure'.
As seen I'm showing the little curl of metal inside the Gypsy setting. After this is finished the ring can be easily polished.
My mini-clamp allows the earring pin not to be bent while being set. On the inside of the two pins are little grooves that hold the earring.
This is the problem when an Oval stone is not well positioned in the setting, it is sitting too high in the bezel. Any graver cutting is very limited around the Girdle of the stone.
BTW, I keep the outside bezel frame at a 45-degree angle. I also 100% avoid cloth-wheel polishing as the rapid speed of the rotation rounds all of the desired edge.
I will use my Pumice wheels of #180 grit to keep the finished setting angles. Then using my (Pink) Pumice wheel of #1,000 grit to finish the cleaning processes. I want to keep my ring edges to kept sharp and crisp, the cloth wheels will ruin these desired effects.
I use my Reciprocating Hammer to GENTLY move the metal well over the girdle of the stone. I decided to use my steel mandrel for this procedure as with a wooden clamp, all of the hitting gets 'lost' in the leather and wooden clamp.
The steel mandrel keeps the 'hammering pressure' against the stone at all times, you should experiment with this process.
This was a roughly C.A.D. (computer assisted design) emblem. I had to drill every stone according to the size of every diamond.
The placement of each stone was a challenge in itself. There were multiple angles on the "Dolphin" ranging from lateral to vertical.
This setting process took me almost 3+ weeks in total. There were a large assortment of round burs being ready to be used. At some instances I would use 3 burs just to 'open' one hole and then a 156C 'undercutting bur' to create a 'seat' after each round bur task was completed. If one bur was worn (or ruined) after constant use, I replaced it.
On a "Difficulty Scale" this project was at "30, out of 10". Many times the customer had to send me more diamonds from where he lived 'out of the country'.
What you seen in these few photos are original diamond setting projects that I had to work with. I have many more photos ready to be displayed and shown to you.
ENJOY, LEARN & EXPERIMENT.
