Chipped Stone - How to remove it from setting

[Squiddyfin]

Hi all,

I'm after some help and advice please.....
I am a newby to Silver Jewellery making and stone setting and would like to know how best to remove a stone from a tube setting without damaging the setting as the setting is gold, the stone is a Peridot I don'd mind if I have to smash it in some way to remove it, especially as it is chipped now but with minimal clean up to the rest of the ring which I was so pleased with.
Many thanks in advance

Angi

[ps_bond]

Can you use a needle burnisher to move the setting outwards to free the stone, and can you anneal the thing after that?

(picture would be handy!)

[Squiddyfin]

Thanks for your quick response, hopefully the picture has uploaded OK. I chipped the edge whilst giving the bezel one more push, doh!

[Wallace]

Thanks for your quick response, hopefully the picture has uploaded OK. I chipped the edge whilst giving the bezel one more push, doh!

if it were me, I would opt for destroying the stone given it is already chipped. A little bit of caution as the shards are not nice! A little sharp pointy tool applied with a tap should fracture the stone further. A couple of goes and it should pop out. I am assuming the base it open. If it is not, as Peter has stated, going underneath the bezel with a needle burnisher to lift it would be the next thing. Heat on peridot can also cause them to spontaneously burst... so there are a few more options.

kindest,
Wallace

[Dennis]

Personally I would heat it in the dark, and quench it in cold water as soon as a slight glow shows and hopefully before any solder flows. This will both anneal the collet and fragment the peridot, so that it can be pushed out piecemeal from underneath.

If your stone broke by setting it in a tube, it signals to me that you were rubbing down too hard. This might have been because you left too much metal above the stone ( you only need about a quarter of a mm for this small stone), or by the look of your picture, because you did not bevel it to a knife edge from the outside, leaving it too thick. Or perhaps both.

Don't despair though, you're not a grown up jeweller until you have a collection of broken stones. Regards, Dennis.

[Gemsetterchris]

As Dennis said, you need to bust a few stones to learn their limitations.
Sometimes It's a weak stone, others times a misjudgment...just make sure It's the small cheap ones that you do your learning curve on.

[Wren]

As Dennis said, you need to bust a few stones to learn their limitations.
Sometimes It's a weak stone, others times a misjudgment...just make sure It's the small cheap ones that you do your learning curve on.

so true

I took half the table off a lovely square faceted emerald which I was setting deep into a cube of 18ct, must have nicked it with the pusher and ping it was ruined. I was cross the ring had turned out ok so I set the stone upsidedown as it was cut quite deep, sounds odd I know but it has an antique look now.

JH

[Gemsetterchris]

so true

I took half the table off a lovely square faceted emerald which I was setting deep into a cube of 18ct, must have nicked it with the pusher and ping it was ruined. I was cross the ring had turned out ok so I set the stone upsidedown as it was cut quite deep, sounds odd I know but it has an antique look now.

JH

Oh, if we could all get away with that!
Great recovery :thumbup:

[Wren]

Oh, if we could all get away with that!
Great recovery :thumbup:

Thanks
The stone was too pretty to bin, cannot sell it of course so I wear the ring to remind me to take more care in future.

JH

[Squiddyfin]

Hi all,

Thank you so much for the help and reassurance
I do find as I'm learning that my jewellery wardrobe is getting larger as I don't think anything is quite good enough to sell, so it gets added to my collection.
I was using a little bezel stone setting tool and I think I must have tapped in the wrong place, I also agree that the edge of the metal may have been a little too thick.
Still I'm having fun learning even if my bank balance is not

Angi