How to safely pick up our loose gemstones - 13 photos.

  How would you hold your precious gemstones? This essay answers this dilemma.

 There is only ONE METHOD in picking up any size of diamonds or gemstones. PLEASE DON'T USE YOUR TWEEZERS. If you do, your precious stones will fly off and vanish somewhere in your jewellery-studio and never to be seen again.

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 The answer to this age old-method is shown here. These tapered wax, picking-tools are so simple to make that you don't need to buy them, you can make them yourselves. I made a group of them myself just as extra, if needed.

                  WHAT ARE THEY MADE OF?

 They are made of wax & charcoal powder combination, nothing else!!! 

 With this combination, you can mix the two compounds into the palm of your hand. You can place the wax on any 'old' bur, but keeping the bur-teeth still attached, as it will hold the new wax combination.

 I used them for diamonds that were 0.005 points in size, or as large as a 5mm gemstone. If the point of the wax gets too wide from excessive use, just use the 'warmth of your fingers and palm and reshape the wax again in your hand. How easy is this?

 Here are a few examples of my 'wax picking-tools'.

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This mixture of 'wax & charcoal' is something that my bench will never be without. I've been using this 'combination' for the past 65 years and never, ever lost a gemstone.

 I've made many of them and never bought any, in fact I keep a supply of them in case one of them wear down and become unusable.

The 'pick-up tool' size is determined at the moment, basically the size is of no consequence.  In this photo is a 5mm stone that nicely holds this stone.

 Supposing that the wax-mixture is needing a repair, this repair can be done in minutes. I'll just roll the mixture in my warm finger-tips with a new batch of wax....DONE! 

If the point of the tool is getting worn, I'll again reshape the wax with my fingers. 

From holding a 10mm stone as shown below, I can easily hold a 3mm gemstone with no effort. 

  I can easily hold any size or shape of stone with no ill-affects. How is this done? 

The answer is just let your warm fingers remodel the 'wax-combination' to the size of your stone.

 The wax will easily grab the 'smooth surface' of any Cabochon stone or any size of Faceted stone.

            Kindly observe the three different sizes of wax-shapes. 

 1)The wax on the right is for the absolutely large stones and ranging down to the ultra-small stone. This wax can easily hold a 0.0025mm diamond. 

2) The wax on the left is kept for the mostly small stones. (I did this while setting 925 diamonds on a CAD bracelet). 

3) The center wax-fob is for the commonly sized stones.

 This one diamond was 'cut & polished' by my Father 90 years ago. I was very careful in handling this stone. The wax-fob held unto this precious diamond with no chance of getting dropped.

               NEVER USE YOUR TWEEZERS IN HOLDING ANY GEMSTONE. 

  

 

 Tweezers are good, but not for holding any of your precious stones. I'd never do this, so why would YOU?

 

 Here are a few "Tapered & Straight Baguettes", these too can be easily held in place without any fear of dropping or getting lost.

  These synthetic stones are 6-7 mm's in size, as this wax safely holds either of them with no problems.

 This large stone is literally held in place by rolling the wax securely around the Culet of the stone. I can drop the wax & stone to the floor, without any fear of it being dislodged. Is this the WOW effect!

   Hoping that this essay has been of great assistance to you? - Gerry Lewy!