Pesky bezels

[Faith]

Hi Dennis,

Having been a bit unproductive lately due to work and holidays, I've just come back to my rings! Re your post below, ive bought rubber wheels as well as my radial disks now and was wondering which were likely to be best for the final polish of the bezel (both from a point of view of finish and non stone scratching?

I hadn't thought to use the rubber wheels on the silver but I was re reading the thread and noticed your suggestion:

Yes you can file close to the stone and many of us do, by grinding and polishing one safe edge on a half round, or flat needle file with stones and rubber wheels. Use it quite lightly and go slowly so as not to slip.

Afterwards finish with a burnisher also slowly and carefully and then with fine and extra fine rubber/silicone wheels of small diameter. Dennis.

Also nearly finished my adapted file

Many thanks
Faith

[Dennis]

Yes the more you do, the more personal tricks you get up to.

For instance to reduce the marks from the pusher, I have made mine from heavy brass wire in a universal handle, so polishing the sides is minimal. I use the silicon-rubber wheels, making sure they are flat edged by running them on my diamond plate.

For the edges of the bezel after filing and burnishing, I also finish with some that have become smaller with use. They can be shaped on the diamond plate to be almost knife edged, but still flat. The fine and extra fine ones are safe on most stones if you run them slowly and are light handed. You will see the effect in my album.

Hope you get on well, Dennis.

[Faith]

Hi Dennis,

Well I finished the file til it was good and shiny and after trying it first on one ring that I'll probably dismantle I had a go on the tourmaline one. It worked brilliantly apart from one problem, where the metal was super tight to the stone in spots the filing left like a tiny burr of higher metal that I couldn't get given the safe edge. In the end I sort of followed one of your earlier comments and managed to get it with a craft knife. Post polishing with the wheels it looks 100 times better than it did tho!

Do you get the little burs with the filing method, or have I messed up the file preparations slightly do you think?

Ta again
Faith

[Dennis]

Yes, by the nature of things, a safe file will occasionally leave a little up-stand of metal very close to the stone. This is why real jewellers use a scorper.
As I am liable to make a mess with scorpers, I go for a snap off craft knife, which is always sharp BTW.

However, the more accurately you finish the bezel edge before finally setting the stone the better the effect.
Only experience will teach you that.
Remember to lay some dental floss across the bezel cup when trying in stones, so that you have ample opportunity to yank them out and are not forced into setting them prematurely.

Now that I have taught you my dreadful amateur practices, you will be able to get on with things and change to more professional methods at leizure. Soon you will be replying to beginners yourself. Dennis.

[Faith]

Thanks Dennis and lol having looked at your cab settings I don't think your practices could be described as dreadful or amateur at all!!

Btw when you said the snap off craft knife is always sharp, did you mean you sharpen it, or that by default it's sharp when u snap a new bit off?

I can already see that the quality of the setting makes a huge difference, Ive done another one where the setting was worked a lot less pushing it over and it looks a lot tidier before filing .

Have you tried using a proper scorper just to trim the little metal upstands at all? I wondered if the nice premade grs scorpers might be even better than the a craft knife and perhaps easier to control in that application where the majority of the bezel edge is filed to lean on....

Ta
Faith

[Dennis]

Yes, provided you only use one section at a time, the next one will be fresh and sharp. However don't let me put you off. You might turn out to be an Olympic scorperer.

Looking forward to your opinion and a pic or two. Dennis.

[Faith]

Well I'll let you know soon as I've got the wee scorper

As for photos, my other half is into photography so I'm gonna get him to take some decent photos once the little set of rings is done and then I'll pop one up!

Faith

[Patstone]

I tried using a scorper to tidy up the edge but ended up using craft knife too. It is a special skill, you can end up going too deep and making the edge bumpy.

[Faith]

Hi Dennis,

Well I've had a bit of rare success that may interest you! Not experimented with scorpering yet, but I tried another 6mm bezel setting (0.45mm wall) and didn't file the bezel edge at all before setting it, just did it full thickness with a flat top. It was mainly for style, I like a thicker bezel top, but the result was the metal pushed over quite uniformly with the top edge of the bezel sloping inward very slightly. Obviously the top edge was a tiny bit raggedy but it filed beautifully with no burrs because I filed it down to flush with the inside edge and no further.

Course not everyone would like the effect, but it worked well

Photos next I think!

Faith

[Dennis]

4000 viewing and still no final pics. Youre a master of suspense, Faith.