"Ferris, File A-Wax" Channel Setting carving => 21 photos

  This wax carving wax was made by "Ferris, File-A-Wax". I don't advertise companies often, but here is an exception. This filing wax is the epitome of a 'strong and durable' wax.

 What makes this wax 'strong and durable' is that this composition of materials is a favourite with my jewellery friends.

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  After the 'rough sawing' of the wax is used here we must decide how wide to make the wax 'measured in millimetres'. It is now necessary to smooth the sides using different grits of files.

  This specific trimming is to gently smooth the outside edge of the wax tube.

  I'm aiming to now remove any rough saw-blade cuts. Not to mention having the edge of the wax supplied with parallel sides. To me, this is so very important.

 Has the new wax ring been given the correct finger size? It's advisable to make changes NOW before forging ahead and taking a chance afterwards.

 

 In using a pair of dividers 'gently' scribe where the centre of the channel line will be situated. Without a 'scribed line' you might have a random series of holes serving no use for you.

 

  Decide exactly where your channel will be located & drilled. This is your 'moment of truth'.

  In this cellophane package are your gemstones. Remove them and pick which stones which are uniform in colour and size.

 Your channel 'opening' must not be the same size as the stones. I use a Triangular file to smooth the edges of the channel wall.

 Now comes the decisions on how deep will the channel be? The next question will be how will this channel be created?

  

 I prefer to prepare the depth with a 'separating disk' and cut deep into the wax. I could use a bur that cuts deep for me, the choice is yours to which is best for you.

 Remember that the channel must be exactly 75% of the diameter of the stones.

  Place all of the stones which you just chose on top of the channel. With this procedure, you can only now decide where each stone will lay.

 SPACING? This might be a problem for some folks, but do you want every stone touching, or should there be a space in between? You can decide this 'here & now'.

 

 How do you do the spacing on a wax form? This answer is not written into any Rule Book, but a simple process of aligning where the stones will lay.

 I will invert every stone Culet pointing up, as this will give me positioning on the wax. If I kept the stone in the usual manner, I wouldn't know where the Culet would be.

 On the side of the channel, I will very 'gently & lightly' scribe where every stone will be.

 (Sorry, I didn't take a photo of this 'spacing' process when I created this portfolio of pictures 4 years ago. I didn't even think of it until a few moments ago.) 

 

Emerald-Cut stone in an 'END-BEZEL' setting => 14 photos

 In this essay, I won't delve into "How to prepare this stone for setting". I will only discuss "How to tighten and finish the two Side & End-Bezels".

 When you are attempting to set a synthetic or even a genuine stone always be mindful of those delicate corners. These are the most fragile areas anywhere on the stone. Any misguided pressure will cause the stone to break, as it's seen below.

  What 'we' are aiming for is to bring together the 4 end-bezel walls. This alone could take me much explaining. The next word I'll use is 'equally'. So sit back, have a cuppa tea or coffee, enjoy & learn.

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 There are 6 sides to this Emerald-Cut bezel. The first question is what tools do 'we' use to secure & tighten this stone?

 

  In this photograph, you can see that there are 4 'end-bezels' that are not fully against the stone. How is this corrected and of course, efficiently?

 

 My answer is very easy, as these strange-looking pliers can be bought from any tool supplier. This will allow you to move the two sides together in one simple gripping motion.

 These plier jaws (shown here) cannot equally 'bring together' the two end bezel-claws at the same time. Why not? The construction of these jaws prevents such a necessary tightening from occurring. 

 No matter how you hold these pliers, 'equal tightening on both sides' just isn't going to happen.

 First of all, the jaws are tapered and not looking clumsy as the above-shown pliers. 

 All of the 'power in moving the metal' is put into a smaller area with much more ease.

 There are 8 pressure points on this open-sided bezel setting. Only these 'bent jaw pliers' will aid you in moving these areas together.

 Once the bezel-ends are against the stone. I will then use my Reciprocating Hammer and gently tap the metal down against the stone. DO NOT HAMMER on the top of the Bezel Wall.

 There is no need to flatten the metal as we need this thickness for "Bright-Cutting".

 This diagram explains what the next two steps will be. These will be Bright-Cutting and Bezel-Trimming.

 The inside of the bezel wall should be cleaned by Bright-Cutting. Why is this done? We are talented craftspersons and whatever we do should be done with skill and using our talents.

 The file trimming is done by using a Triangular file with a #4 grit.

 The outside edge of the bezel wall should not remain with a sharp edge but filed at a 45-degree angle.

  This photo displays where the Bright-Cutting occurs. 

 Everywhere that there are 'corners and flat surfaces' these need to be made smooth.

 This is where the Bright-Cutting areas need to be crafted. You will notice that the top of the bezel wall is not finished FLAT, but remains always at an angle of 45 degrees.

 On the sides of the bezel wall, these corners seem to be tilted. That was not done on purpose, this was caused by the squeezing of the bezel wall and the action from the pliers. 

 When you are trimming these end jaws, I greatly suggest straightening the file angles to perpendicular.

 

 On every flat surface, I suggest using a Pumice wheel of #180 grit to remove any pliers or casting marks.

 After this has been completed you may use your cloth wheel or a Flat surface lapping wheel.

 If there are additional deep marks on the metal I could suggest using your "Medium grade, Snap-on-Emery wheel". This wheel will make the ring surfaces so much smoother.

  The Difficulty Level on this project is 8 out of 10. 

 One word of caution is to keep your cutting tools and files clean from remaining pieces of metal. Cleanliness is so important in these projects.

Metal casting with CAD claws => 18 photos

  This essay is added directly from the essay on WAX casting. These photos are what it's like when the wax designs are actually cast in metal. These photos show the synthetic stones being set and what tools that I used.

 These metal samples were not cloth wheel polished, but put into a 'Magnetic Tumbler' just to pre-polish the metal before setting.

 The following castings show just where the problems lay and where the stones will be set.

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1) You can see now in metal the CAD claws how inferior they look.

2) It is quite apparent that many of the mini-claws just won't support a good stone-setting process.

3) You can see that there are 'decoration claws', but around each of them is a rough surface in between those claws.

4) With some of the stones now set, the multitude of stones look much better, agree?

5) These are my basic setting tools, I only want a limited number of tools in my bench tray.

6) In this photo I used an Onglette graver with the underbelly made rounded. Then with this 'graver modification' I can move each claw to hold every stone. I'm only using 'two claws per stone'.

  I will also use my reliable 'Bead Burnisher' to move each claw against the stone. Here are a few photos of what this other setting option will involve.

 These burnishers come in many sizes and it is up to you to 'pick & choose' which size to use.

 When you want to buy a 'set of burnishers', this is what they look like at your favourite tool supplier.

 The chosen burnisher will fit into this tool holder.

 7) What about the 'cornerstone' where only one (visible) claw is being used? The answer is quite easy to answer. I will use one claw but raise one bead against the 'metal wall' to secure the stone.

8) I could rely upon setting 'the stones in wax'. In my experience of 60 years of stone setting, I prefer to set the stones in metal.

9) In this photo. I will show what bur I intend to use. I'm using a "156C, Under-Cutting bur" to create a seat for each stone

 This bur has another name as a 'Bearing Cutter'. "No matter the name, if the bur works for you, use it!"

10) I suggest to you that clean out EVERY STONE SETTING as this will make the opening ROUND. 

 Remember, we are dealing with mediocre-shaped CAD claws.

11) It is very important to make sure that every stone is set correctly and not crooked. Repairing a crooked stone can cause claw breakage.

 12) Before any undercutting of claws, please use a round bur and make each hole completely round. In this picture, you can see some of the settings oval or out of shape. 

 There is no possible way you can set a round stone if the hole is oval. Get rid of any extra pieces of metal.

 

  When I was given this stone-setting task, there were initially 8 disks forming a long necklace.

 Each disk had 4 colours of stones, you do the counting on how many stones there were. (I counted 1,696 stones of RED, BLUE, WHITE and GREEN)

                     "Isn't gemstone setting so much fun?"

(REPEATED ESSAY) WAX CAD CASTING with 11 errors => 12 photos

 These wax injections were made possible with my rubber mold as shown at the end of this essay.

 There are (many) defects in this mould and these were not noticed until a few of the wax injections were made. 

 I found 11 serious problems, what a startling discovery for me.

Between a (CAD) "Computer-Aided-Designed" program and the wax casting, there are a litany of problems.

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1) The bottom row of holes is not perfectly round, but oval.

2) The underneath displays a 'very uneven' surface that is not conducive to the standard smooth metal castings that we all know about.

 3) There are many holes that are filled with wax, this will become a labour-intensive cleaning process.

4) Many, if not all of the holes are irregularly shaped, some of them are even oval.

 

  

5) Many of the mini-claws are missing, if not, just not well formed.

 7) Here are additional oval-shaped holes that should have to be used for ROUND STONES.

8) In this photo are my '3-claw' drills that I must use to clear the wax for EACH hole. This alone will be a very daunting and time-wasting process.

9) These '3-claw drills' will be 'finger-held' and each will be manually rotated gently 'one hole at a time'.

 10) This is the only way that these holes should be cleaned, being 'very careful' is the epitome of saving the wax forms.

11) As you can see ALL OF THE HOLES HAVE BEEN NICELY OPENED and cleaned of unwanted wax.

 This is the rubber mold culprit that caused so much time to be wasted.

 This 'half of the rubber mold' looked good, but once the wax was injected, this is where the problems were quickly seen. OUCH!

   In closing, I suggest injecting your mold with wax. If you see no problems, then you can go ahead with your metal casting.