Making a lapiz cab ring

[Patstone]

I have just made a ring in sterling and have done the bezel in fine silver, not finished yet but I have found it a lot easier to use than the bezel silver. I suppose it is a bit thicker too which lends itself to more sanding etc. I will put up a pic of it when its finished. What shape scorper do you use James, I have an onglette "V" ??? and a square one, I am guessing its the "V" one, I will give it a bash when I get to setting in the stone. Just out of interest, when you can buy "D" wire, why do you use square and file it to a "D".

[Goldsmith]

I have just made a ring in sterling and have done the bezel in fine silver, not finished yet but I have found it a lot easier to use than the bezel silver. I suppose it is a bit thicker too which lends itself to more sanding etc. I will put up a pic of it when its finished. What shape scorper do you use James, I have an onglette "V" ??? and a square one, I am guessing its the "V" one, I will give it a bash when I get to setting in the stone. Just out of interest, when you can buy "D" wire, why do you use square and file it to a "D".

I use a flat scorper so that no cutting edge is on the stone, be careful using an onglette as you may damage the stone as not all stones are that hard.
This is the scorper that I used to cut around my bezel.


James

[Gemsetterchris]

You could try buffing a mirror finish to the top surface first before setting, then you`ll not need to do much if anything except burnish the outside edge.

[Patstone]

Not a happy lady, I have been all afternoon trying to bend the fine silver bezel over the stone. The stone was rocking, so I put a jumpring inside as the middle was a bit uneven. Filed the edge to a knife edge and it looked good, but alas couldnt bend the silver over the stone so left it for tonight. Will give an update tomorrow I expect. Not sure what thickness I should have used but used 0.5mm as I had it in stock. Watch this space !!!!!!

[Aurarius]

Not a happy lady, I have been all afternoon trying to bend the fine silver bezel over the stone. The stone was rocking, so I put a jumpring inside as the middle was a bit uneven. Filed the edge to a knife edge and it looked good, but alas couldnt bend the silver over the stone so left it for tonight. Will give an update tomorrow I expect. Not sure what thickness I should have used but used 0.5mm as I had it in stock. Watch this space !!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your frustrations, Pat.
How are you trying to push the metal over? Are you just pushing on a tool or are you hammering it. If a bezel edge can't be pushed over easily I tend to use light hammer taps on a square ended prong pusher, going all the way round the setting, perhaps several times. I don't find the metal has to be thinned at the top. I do do what Chris suggests, which is to get the top edge of the bezel very even and polished before I push it over so that there is minimal finishing to do on it once it is hugging the stone.
Ed. You say the stone was rocking. Is this because the bottom of the bezel was uneven or the bottom of the stone? Either way, it's best to address those problems before setting. Both can be ground flat if necessary.

[Patstone]

Just finished replying and pushed the wrong button and it all disappeared. Try again - Thanks for the info, I wondered if my hands werent strong enough to push the silver over the stone. Normally I use bezel silver but this time thought I would try to see if fine silver would look less chewed around the edge of the bezel. Never thought of hammering it, will try it tomorrow, I paid about £30 for the stone so very reluctant to mess with it too much. Its a topaz and beautiful but a bit too big for a ring really, think it may look better as a pendant, but I love rings and earrings, so make quite a lot of them. It cant be all bad though as my daughter and I went to a small village fair and sold over £100 each so quite pleased, but I would like to conquer the ring problem.

[Aurarius]

Just finished replying and pushed the wrong button and it all disappeared. Try again - Thanks for the info, I wondered if my hands werent strong enough to push the silver over the stone. Normally I use bezel silver but this time thought I would try to see if fine silver would look less chewed around the edge of the bezel. Never thought of hammering it, will try it tomorrow, I paid about £30 for the stone so very reluctant to mess with it too much. Its a topaz and beautiful but a bit too big for a ring really, think it may look better as a pendant, but I love rings and earrings, so make quite a lot of them. It cant be all bad though as my daughter and I went to a small village fair and sold over £100 each so quite pleased, but I would like to conquer the ring problem.

I'm not sure what you mean by "bezel silver", Pat. If it's not fine silver it will almost certainly be sterling, nothing else. Thicknesses being equal, sterling will require a bit more effort to deform (i.e. push over) than fine silver, but there's no magic ingredient in either that makes it inherently more or less difficult to produce neat work with.

Any thinning of the top of the bezel, such as James mentions, is done to even up and neaten the perimeter of metal around the stone, not to help you push the metal over.

Bear in mind that the more you dent or otherwise mark the outside of the bezel in pushing it over, the more filing and thinning you will have to do after setting the stone to eliminate these marks. Bear in mind also that the inside of the bezel wall is as important as the outside. If the inside is dented or uneven before you start pushing it over then you will never get it to sit evenly against the cab, however much you file the outside to an even finish.

[Patstone]

Bezel silver is pre-made in two widths (from Cooksons anyway) 3mm and 5mm, which is what we were told to use in the evening class umpteen years ago, suppose its fine silver, not sure about that but no doubt the spiel will tell you. It is sold in strips so I dont have to cut it evenly as its already cut for me. In this case I think the problem is more with the stone shape than with my workmanship, but as I said earlier I thought that putting a jumpring on the inside of the bezel slightly smaller than the outside of the stone would sort out the rocking problem but it didnt. Anyway today is another day so will try again.

[Gemsetterchris]

Are you using a handheld ring clamp for setting?

[Patstone]

I have been using it this time. I also have a GRS one and the inside one, and tried both.