One of the stones our black fingered friend sent me was a kind of briolette, fully round on two faces but with a definite edge, well briolettes in general I find very hard to set but ....... though I am sure it is not a new technique it came to me that by soldering two wires together thus creating a channel, soldering them to two sides of a rod I might be able to set the stone this way. Well having got it all soldered up and easing one side of the stone and pushing hard there was a satisfying snap and the stone went in (no damage) never to come out I hope:


Briolette type thing by kwant, on Flickr

I think this method would work for a fully round briolette too, so will try it when I have some that are larger than the tiny rubies that defeated me, and no glue or carving of the stone :0)