Modifying your "Bead-Burnisher"!

                 "Modifying your Bead-Burnisher, how & why?
             This technique will save you from any stone breakage!     

 
When you have a series of fine 'beads' to burnish, here is a fantastic method in finishing your project. The thought of damaging your Diamonds or even Emeralds will be now a thing of the past!

 This method and techniques were taught to me only 60 years ago! It has been a 'real life-saver' when dealing with expensive stones that need to be safely 'burnished' & uniform in size.

 In decades past we had to make our very own 'bead-burnishers'. For only a small $ amount, you can buy these in a set of 12, or even 18, time saved than making your own.

 First of all, select a bead-burnisher that is 'larger in circumference' than the bead you need to be rounded! For example, in your pre-made set of burnishers, use a burnisher that is not the same size as the bead, why not?

 When you attempt to rotate the burnisher, you will see a little rim (or dish) around the tip of the bead. This is definite "no-no"!

 With your selected burnisher in your handle, lay it on your oil-stone at a 45-degree angle. Your stone should have oil on its surface as the metal will not get embedded into the pores of the stone.

With "three long strokes" of the burnisher, from one end of the stone to the other is sufficient to get the correct results.

 Do not keep stopping and looking as this might give you a 'faceted' effect on the tool when you're wanting to start again! Three...long...SLOW draws on the oil-stone, it's now done! Was this EASY?

  There are many instances where the simplest procedure can turn into a nightmare! When you have to secure for example 49 stones in this item. 

 Every one of these beads must of the same size & moved over the stone in an orderly fashion. 

A 'bead-burnisher' is the only setting tool you need to use, but it must be configured as not to damage any of the stones!

 When I was awarded the "Guinness World Record" some years ago, I used a 'bead-burnisher'
that didn't damage any fragile stones in the process. I placed the 'facet' of the burnisher against the stone if not there would have been 'stone-dust' in my bench pan!!!

 Instead of using a "cup-bur, aka 77B" on each claw tip, I did many things at once. I 'rounded off '
the mini-claw tips and at the same time pressed the 'tip' down on the stone and furthermore making the claw-tips uniform in appearance.

  There is no other way to finish setting these 516 stones (double-sided plate & the "88").  Using a correctly designed 'bead-burnisher' and let it do the clean finishing with you!

 To review this important topic:

 Why must there be this 'metal facet'? The answer is very interesting and easy to understand.

 When the burnisher is held vertical, that section of the rim on the burnisher is no longer going to make any contact and damage the Facets of the stone.

 Basically, there is now only 3/4 of a rim now to 'round' the beads. Interesting scenario?
 You can still rotate the tool as you have done in the past. Now there are no longer having any 'barriers' to prevent you from getting the beads finished!

 I have added a few of my 'archived' photographs of the many uses of a 'faceted, bead-burnisher'.

  In this picture, I wanted to secure the bead as it might get cut or destroyed in the 'rough-cutting processes.

 (I might suggest  in having you experiment on some 'sample' beads to familiarize yourself with this very easy technique.)

 Try some 'fresh' beads on a silver plate and get used to the "Oil-stone & Faceting process". Then understand what is going on between the 'burnisher-facet' and the 'soft' stones.

 Here are a few of my archived pictures!
  Here is a set of "Grills", the beads are now secured and strong enough to withstand further graver cutting.

 
  In this picture, I can easily bead-burnish these very delicate stones with no 'breakage' problems!

 
  All of these 'tender' stones were equally burnished in size, even on Emeralds & Rubies!

 
  This process will now enable you to burnish your beads with no further problems!

 Email me for any questions; gerrylewy18@gmail.com

Which Pumice Wheel to use, when, where & why!

  In this essay, I'm not discussing anything to do with stone-setting. I'll be explaining rather where and when & of course, which Pumice wheel that should be used in the 'clean-up' process.

 There are basically only two Pumice wheels that I use constantly, they are both the "Flat-Faced" and the "Tapered" edge.

 The next question is which 'grade or grit' is commonly used?  I'll use my experience as a Diamond Setter to guide you further!

 My choice is a #180 grit, with a "Medium" texture! Nothing more than these for the clean-up.
The colours are a "dark-blue" in your tool suppliers office. There is 'light-blue' these are not mine!

 The next is a "Pink" colour-wheel, with a grit of #1,000. These wheels will cancel-out any further meticulous cleaning to your metal then using the cloth-wheel polishing.

 These two (Tapered) styles of pumice wheels can get into so many crevices that no file or "Tripoly, or Rouge" polishing can get into. The catch-phrase is "keep your edges and surfaces flat & sharp!" The cloth-polishing wheels just usually 'round off  the edges & corners'...:>(

  Here are only a few of my assorted Pumice and Emery wheels of all shapes and sizes.

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On some of my teaching classes, a few of my students didn't need all of the wheels I purchased for them. One night I had no container to use..after my dinner, I kept the box, but I ate a great salad!..:>)

 So here is a large size container and it came with a tight lid.

                        "Alas, poor pumice wheels, where for art thou?"

I always have a "back-up" of assorted-wheels in case of any emergency and so should you!

 In this interesting photograph is the exact process I used in cleaning delicate areas of a basic flat-surface engagement ring. On the back of the claw/prong, I would be using the side of the 'Pumice wheel #180 grit' as shown.

 I totally avoid any use of a file! I need to have the surface of the metal smooth and no remnants of striations from the teeth of the file.

Try and have extra 'mandrels' for those wheels, timing is of the essence when you are rushing to get a ring finished. Two mandrels the #180 grit (Flat & Tapered) and two more for the #1,000 grit of the same.

 This previously written (2016) essay supports my present ideas on 'which', 'where', and of course 'when' to use your Pumice 'cleaning' wheels.

(For this essay, I'm posting many photographs to better explain each mini-topic!)

                                “Pumice Wheels @ #180 grit!”

 There are many tools on the market these days that is now used constantly in the “Diamond & Gemstone Setting” processes. The one that I believe is most important, is not the Pillar or Triangular file, but the often ignored is the “Pumice Wheel”.  I, and with most setters that I know, use only the #180 Grit. There are many too smooth grades a.k.a. #240, I prefer the basic #180, why so? It is not too aggressive, but still, it cleans and is really very gentle around anything that you are setting & even cleaning.

 Let’s suppose that after you complete your filing around Claws, Bezel and even Channel-Setting. It is imperative that you should use an even smoother textured-apparatus, namely the ‘Pumice Wheel’.    

 If you are not using them, you have just nothing to lose, the results are just fantastic. You could even experiment on where you could find other uses for them. In your jewellery fabrication, these can be a ‘real life-saver & gift’ for your cleaning, even prior to the polishing with your wheel-buffs. 

  I'm using the side of the wheel to get close to the claws as I can.

  I'm using the very tip of the Tapered wheel but now at a much slower speed.

 After your filing, there are even little striations left on the metal, so how do you remove them? Don’t polish them off, why so? Easy answer, you’d be then making all the ‘squared-off’ claws or flat surfaces, actually be then rounded, not too nice after your hard labour. <=(I type and use the “Canadian spelling” version, in all of my essays.)

 To continue on; let’s suppose you’ve used your ‘Emery Disks” just to do some last-minute cleaning and you still notice some rough surfaces. You say to yourself, “What happened, these marks weren’t here before?” The ‘Fine’ or ‘Medium’ grit on the sanding disks are to blame, then STOP! 

  Get out your Pumice wheel and ‘redo’ those 'rough-textured' surfaces!

 In the following photographs, many of them are ‘staged’ just for this essay. Of course, I wouldn’t be holding the rings in a soft material that way, they are only to demonstrate how the wheel will be in contact with the claws and other surfaces. 

 What stones can I use these wheels next to? With great care and experience, these can be used literally beside any soft stone! Although it does need some practice to use them near Blue Zircon, Turquoise, Opal and very carefully..Pearls! (Sorry I don't have any photo's of these rings in progress).  I have a multitude of ‘wheel mandrel’s, why so many? All the time you are using the wheels, you might be wasting time removing one wheel shape to another…just buy many of the mandrels and keep your mind on your work, not stopping to remove, put another wheel on. AKA "time being wasted"!  

  I, even at times, use the ‘worn out’ wheels to clean the inside of the ring. There are so many other uses, all you have to do is to be creative!!

 After a short period of time, you need to keep your flat surfaces FLAT, How would you manage this? You could use your ‘sanding disk’ or a Corundum (separating disk) and just reshape your pumice wheel, as needed.

Just keep those wheels ‘trimmed and cleaned’ & ready to be used again. 

 In my opening remarks, I did say that these wheels are a ‘gift’ to the jewellery bench. Learn to use them as often as you can, use the Tapered wheels to the little areas. 

 BTW, I use the #1,000 grit Pink wheel as these could be used in lieu of the polishing cloth-wheels. Why use the (aggressive) “Tripoli & Rouge” as you have been using? When you could have been using the Pink #1,000 grit instead! 

 Stay alert as to where your wheel is touching the metal or you will have 'scratches' put on to the 'Facets' of the stone.

 Be very gentle and have your wheel rotate at a slight angle AWAY from the stone.

  
 These wheels are just great for Gypsy Setting. Avoid any filing, but use a "Fine" texture Emery & Pumice wheels extensively.

 I always set my stone further into the metal, just to avoid any unforeseen 'catastrophes' when cleaning near the stone.

Now you can ‘save’ those delicate stones in any kind of setting patterns.

 I sincerely hope you have ‘found a new friend’ and they are the Pumice Wheels!  Two words for you to remember, they are; "Experiment often!"

Pave' Setting; 1.50 mm Rubies (from wax to metal)

 When I saw this little 'metal sample' at my caster's office, I thought it could have some possibilities in making an essay. My guess was correct, here it is!

 I asked him to just inject a wax and let me do the rest! There were some irregularities in the way it was given to me. There were no holes drilled and not knowing how many stones that will be used or just where I had to drill them. Here is the process!

 The "Difficulty Scale" is nearly 9 out of 10. 

 How much experience is required? At least 3 years of graver usage!

 I initially marked where I thought each hole should be and marked them with a felt-tipped pen. If

I drilled a hole out of line. I'd use my heating wax-pen and filled it in. I did this many times just to get the holes in the center of each section. With my wax-file, I'd clean off the surface until it looked acceptable for the metal setting process.

The following 8 photographs are showing you how each step was finished & then ready for metal casting! 

 This "extra sprue" was only a temporary situation, as I wanted to have ample amount of silver to get to the other side of this large ring, while in casting.

 This wax is now ready for using the hand-drilling of holes. Never use your Flex-Shaft handpiece! 
(I'm borrowing two pictures from another essay, just to show you how this 'wax-drilling' is done!)

These little 3-tooth blades are ultra-sharp, be very careful in how it's held in your fingers!

 Here are my 13, 1.5 mm Rubies on the "center & right" side. The five on the left measure @ 1.75mm's, I always have 'extra, just in case'. 

 I never drill the holes to the exact size at first. I will leave that to when the stones are going to be set. Why not now?

 I might have one or two stones differ in sizes, even if they are classified as "1.5mm's'. they could measure 1.48 or even 1.47 mm's. My round bur will  #014 (1.40mm's) for now!

I'm using a "Knife-edge", Onglette #1, to start the first line of cutting. This line is to guide me to carve the deeper cut until I have gone three times into the metal.

 Once I have cut to the proper depth, I will THEN use my Flat graver #40 and carve a series of lines just where the Onglette #1 went first.

 Here you can see the initial cutting process, starting from the top section and looking downward you can see how this process finishes! 

 Those little triangles (that I carved) will be the 'beads' further along this process. This is an interesting process, isn't it!..:>)

  If I find that space in between the two stones is too wide, I'll make a double Bright-Cut, as shown.

I prefer to have every space Bright-Cut with no gaps, anywhere! I learned this rule 60 years ago!

 These are the minimum selection of setting tools & burs that I use for this demo. I haven't 'hidden' any other tools from you. What you see, is just what I use!!!

 These are the only burs that I will be using, just to set each stone. One round bur is near the size of the stone, an "Under-Cutting" bur aka 156C to carve a seat inside each of the new beads.
 A smaller 156C bur (#013) is used, in case the larger (#014) 156C bur won't do what I need..:>(

 There is a need for 10 Rubies for this one side, as I am short 1-2 more stones, I'd rather have enough to complete this one section.

 I haven't drilled through the metal!  This ring is so very thick I might just break the 1mm. 'twist-drill' in the drilling process, and I don't want this to happen, do I?..:>(

  I just drilled deep enough to clear the Culet for each stone.

 In this photograph, I attempted to show just where each 156C cut is taking place. (Sorry for the poor focusing, this picture took me some time to prepare, but you get the idea, agree?.:>)

The stone will be situated 'underneath' the new bead.

 There must be NO FLAT SURFACES ANYWHERE. 

 The cutting being shown is too shallow and further 'deeper' cutting is now required!

 In this picture, you can see a little curl of metal from the Ongellete, "Knife-Edge" graver making an outline in the metal. This particular graver is only 0.22mm's in width!

The 'rough-cutting' process is now ready for the final "Bright-Cutting" segment of this exercise.

 I'm even Bright-Cutting a side of each plate/section, why this? It's because no other process in cleaning will give such a clean 'mirror-like' cut!

I'm now using a Flat Graver #40 that is with a highly polished surface. I need to make just ONE continuous cut and ONLY ONE CUT.

If you do this a few times, there will be faceting along the upright side and it doesn't look nice!.:>(

Much practicing is needed in just doing this 'not-so-simple' process!

 To give the end of each plate a nice finish, I will use my Flat graver and just clean each section!
 (I will do this anywhere that's needed!)

  Here are some different views on this ring:\

As this is only a 'demonstration' ring, this ring will never be for sale, or recycled!

 I used Blue-Sapphires on the remaining side as I didn't have enough Rubies.

 Now there you have it, DONE. How long did this process take? I have no idea on the number of hours, but I tried to make it look 'almost' simple, which it isn't.