Ring Bezels

[Patstone]

Can anyone inform me please, do you file the inside of the bezel when you set a cabachon. In the school I went to they said you made it like a knife edge by filing the top of the inside of the bezel, all the ones I do that with look as if I have chewed it. I use proper bezel silver, I have thought about using sterling in .3mm instead to see if its a bit better, when I have filed it flat on the top it looks ok, but its not like a knife edge then. I am trying to save up to book a week or so in the Cornish School of Jewellery to learn the finer points of doing stuff, as the course I went on was very basic.

[Dennis]

You will no doubt get different advice from other members Pat, but I find bought bezel strip far too flimsy and wasteful, as it is never the right width. So to start I would cut my strip from 4.0mm fine silver and file my bevel on the outside, which is much easier to do. Later you can use much thicker material.

Once I know the size of a round stone, I form my bezel around the shank of a twist drill the same size or slightly smaller. Once made, if too small, gentle tapping will enlarge it in stages. If too large, you have the nuisance of cutting it again. For oval stones, add the height to the width and divide by two. This allows you to make the correct size of round bezel to turn into an oval on a mandrel.

A cheap but comprehensive set of twist drills is also useful to wind up to ten jump-rings. Dennis.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

You will no doubt get different advice from other members Pat, but I find bought bezel strip far too flimsy and wasteful, as it is never the right width. So to start I would cut my strip from 4.0mm fine silver and file my bevel on the outside, which is much easier to do. Later you can use much thicker material.

Dennis, please tell me you meant 0.4mm?

[mizgeorge]

Not Dennis, but 0.4mm is just that - 0.4mm fine silver sheet - from which you cut your own bezel strip. It's just that bit weightier than the regular 0.3mm fine bezel sold as strip. That 0.1mm can be the difference between an attractive setting and a ragged edged one. I often use quick a lot thicker than that, but as Dennis says, that takes a bit of practice and a nicely filed edge.

[Dennis]

Dennis, please tell me you meant 0.4mm?

Yes sorry, Melanie and thank you George, that little dot just won't stay in the right place. I won't go into the bottle of wine we bought in Spain when they still had pesetas. We thought we had paid £8. Shock horror.

[Patstone]

Thank you again, I will try using the fine silver sheet instead of bezel silver, and filing the outside would be a much better idea and most of it could be done before soldering so I would only have to file a flat sheet, which would be easier too. It will be on my next Cookson order, thanks once again to all the nice people who answered me.