advice re: bezel thickness in 18ct gold

Dear all,
I have an opal which I am going to set in an 18ct gold bezel and solder to a silver base. I haven't used 18ct gold before and having had a browse through the forum I noticed on one thread that 0.3mm thickness was mentioned for a bezel. I was planning to use 0.5mm - will that be problematic? All being well I will solder the bezel to 1.1mm thick silver...
Any thoughts/advice gratefully recieved, my work has mostly been in silver + 9ct gold to date!

I've just joined the forum and will fill out my profile details soon but need to bite the bullet and start this ring...

Thanks in advance,
Birgitte

Hi Birgitte,

If you are just using the strength in you fingers, then 0.3mm is about right. Anything thicker and you will probably need a setting punch and a hammer, or a hammer handpiece.

If you prefer the look of thicker bezels you could also use a finer alloy, but the colour match would be off. Dennis.

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your reply - yes I was going to just use my own strength with a bezel rocker - I've done that with 9ct before and thought that 18ct would be softer and therefore easier...
Will order some 0.3mm and save the 0.5 for something else!

Birgitte

I'd always choose 18 over 9 carat gold, for several reasons - but hardness/softness is not one of them. Alloys vary according to which metals are alloyed with the gold, but more gold doesn't necessarily mean a softer alloy. (See here - http://www.9carat.co.uk/hardnessofgoldalloys.html for a simple intro.) I agree with Dennis that 0.5mm is probably too much for a bezel if you're working by hand.
Alan

Thanks for that info. Alan that link was very helpful :)
Birgitte

I used 0.3mm 18ct on this opal - any more and it would have been tough going (was fairly terrified putting pressure on her) Attachment 8849

Thanks Lydia - that's lovely and my opal is probably a similiar size, can I ask what solder you used when soldering the bezel to the shank?

Birgitte

Sorry, am on erratically at mo! I used 18ct medium to solder the bezel shut, then easy paste to solder the bezel onto the base (0.5mm silver), then the same paste to solder the entire bezel to the shank
ETA: Opal was roughly 20mm x 16mm

Loving that opal ring Lydia, I love the rawness of it! :) I too am planning on venturing into using gold for bezels, seems to be the easiest way to add some gold, apart from just using gold granules. I have used accents of 9ct yellow gold before and soldered it to silver with no probs.

Question: if I wanted to solder a gold bezel to a silver base and the base will be shown, can I use silver solder for that or does it need to be gold solder for it to look good? I would just try it but don't want to waste gold! :) And I guess in your case, could you have just used silver solder to solder the cab setting to the shank, especially since you can't really see the join under the granules etc.?

I might try using 0.3mm bezel but also a thicker one with hammer and punch. I do like a chunkier look....

And finally, what thickness base would be good to use say for a smallish cab of perhaps up to 15mm diameter? 0.6mm 18ct gold?

Appreciate the help! :)

Carin
x

you are right, silver solder to solder the setting to the shank. I always use 0.5 sheet for bezel base, if a gold bezel on silver base, I use silver solder (but gold solder to shut the bezel - naturally) :-)