Pesky bezels

[Faith]

Oh PS I should have said - those rings are beautiful! Your daughter is very lucky
Faith

[Goldsmith]

Oh PS I should have said - those rings are beautiful! Your daughter is very lucky
Faith

She does like her ring collection. This her watching the Olympics a few years back.



James

[Faith]

Brilliant

[metalsmith]

the Five Olympic rings meets the united colours

[Faith]

So close

So here it is (poor little thing):



Worried about the solder seam between shank and bezel I thought it would be a good idea to cocoon the whole ring in thermoloc to hold in the vice with just the top part of the bezel poking out... Bad bad plan. I ended up with only half (vertically) of the bezel wall pushed over, a loose stone and a nasty line around the middle where scratched by the edge of the setting tool. It took hours to fix (just holding it in the vice like I should have in the first place) and the stone is still not 100 solid).

Also I think all the extra work has damaged the bezel wall, the top edge isn't smooth. I haven't filed it yet, but will filing get that out? Can I even file that close to the stone... I guess perhaps this is what folks use a scorper for, but frankly that seems beyond my ability, would anything else tidy it up?

Many thanks
Faith

[Dennis]

It doesn't look so bad in the picture Faith and your main complaint seems to be that you aren't an ace setter yet. Well some, including myself, never will be, but we improve over time.

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.

[enigma]

Totally agree with Dennis, stone setting is really hard IMO and takes lots and lots of practise this really doesn't look bad for an early attempt to me.
Ive been working on it for a couple of years now and still often have problems getting a really neat edge around the stone.
Some stones like diamonds and sapphires you can file very close to without worrying about damaging but most stones will mark if the file touches them so you have to be very careful.
Keep practising and try and learn from your mistakes each time as far as possible but don't be disheartened , stone setting is a very specialist skill that takes lots of practise to be decent at.

[enigma]

BTW I don't know if it would be useful for you and its a bit primitive but I place my rings on a mandrel on a sandbag for setting and it works ok for me.

[Faith]

Thanks both

out of interest will fine emery scratch a stone? 1200 or 2000 grit perhaps? I was just wondering if that might be a safer way to tidy up the edge right next to the stone. Obviously there'd be no way to do it without touching the stone - hence the question. Or is it just a bad idea.

Also thanks for the encouragement this one is better than my previous attempts (or which there are less than 5) so hopefully practice will make perfect

Thanks
Faith

[enigma]

Yes it very likely will scratch depending what the stone is of course.
You can , if you are careful, file everything except the inside edge without touching the stone, the inside edge would need cleaning up with a scorper if there are rough bits or a burnisher.
It is best really though to try and keep the inside edge smooth when setting if you can ( not that Im saying thats easy LOL)