Working with reticulated sheet

Hi Folks,

Question for ya:

I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I reticulated a while
back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on the sheet surface. The
solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and file to fit a bezel cup I
made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and high potential for error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to the
sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?

Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC

Make a cup and then solder it into a hole in the reticulations - that way the
stone will sit flat too. Make sure that you burnish the edges of the
reticulated metal before you solder onto it. It was a trick someone once
told me about - otherwise the solder won’t hold for very long. Also make
the cup to hold the stone, then fit it into the reticulated piece- rather
than visa versa - it’s easier to file a little away to fit the cup into that
to make the cup fit intot he hole.

Good luck

Joan

Hi Folks,

Question for ya:

I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I reticulated a while
back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on the sheet surface. The
solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and file to fit a bezel cup I
made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and high potential for error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to the
sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?

Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC

Dave, just a thought here. What about putting three or four balls of shot
under the bezel cup and having it raised from the surface? There is also a
trick for faking a reticulated surface using hacksaw dust from the metal
you’re using. I’m dong silver so don’t know if it works with gold, probably
does. You basically sprinkle a heavy coat of metal shavings, dust and fuse
it to the surface. That way you can keep an area clear for a bezel setting.
You could use gum arabic to stencil the area out, though haven’t tried this
in practice yet…Dave

Art Jewelry for Conscious People
http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html

David Sebaste wrote:

Hi Folks,

Question for ya:

I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I reticulated a while
back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on the sheet surface. The
solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and file to fit a bezel cup I
made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and high potential for error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to the
sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?

Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC

orchid@ganoksin.com

use irregular solcer

Dave Sebaste wrote:

Question for ya:

I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I reticulated a while
back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on the sheet surface. The
solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and file to fit a bezel cup I
made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and high potential for error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to the
sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?

Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio
Charlotte, NC

Dave:

I don’t know exactly what your doing, but how about designing with round
stones and use a drill or a milling cutter to cut a round set for the bezel
or cup into the reticulated silver. Remember your revelation about round
stones?

Kenneth Gastineau
gastin@mis.net

From: David Sebaste davidse@microsoft.com
To: ‘orchid@ganoksin.com’
Subject: Working with reticulated sheet
Date: Thursday, November 07, 1996 1:48 PM

Hi Folks,

orchid@ganoksin.com

procedures

Hi Folks,

Question for ya: I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I
reticulated a while back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on
the sheet surface. The solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and
file to fit a bezel cup I made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and
high potential for error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to the
sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?

Hi David,

Check out this 2-parter article in Lapidary Journal, a pendant made
by Tom & Kay Benham that may give you an idea for one good way to do
what you have in mind. Best of luck to ya, Carol

http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/stepbystep/nov03.cfm

Hey David,

I tackled this headache a few years back. One solution is to do it
the other way round. Hehehehehe…

What on earth do you mean? You’ll ask. Well, depending on how thick
your reticulated sheet is, you could use a thin layer of silver and
solder it underneath your reticulated piece (since reticulated
pieces do not have even surfaces on the back either). Before you
solder the thin layer (about 50�=half a milimetre) make your bezel
to fit your stone. After you do that and the bezel is the closest
possible shape to your stone take a pencil and draw the shape of the
bezel, using the bezel itself, on the back of the reticulated piece.
Cut inside of the shape you draw and then measure and file according
to the fit. After that sand the back of the reticulated piece so it
becomes flat and voila!

You’ll have a bezel for your cabouchon stone(s) hopefully without
too much trouble. Solder your “base” on to the reticulated piece
(you’ll probably have to cut your"base" the exact shape as the rest
of the piece. There are other solutions though.) Bear in mind when
measuring to cut the height of the bezel to leave a bit of "slack"
so you can actually have room to work on your bezel to set the
stone. Hope that helps.

Lee Lyssimachou
Lee Feenix Art Workshop
Greece

In response to David’s question about attaching a bezel to a
reticulated surface, I can tell you how I approach the problem. I
usually line my bezel up on the metal surface and trace a line
around it with a sharpie pen. Then I use an abrasive wheel in the
flex shaft to flatten down the area where the bezel will sit, being
careful to grind only inside my guide lines. At that point the
surface where the bezel will sit is usually flat enough to accept
the bezel and solders without a problem. This is a pretty tedious
process and one that has to be fairly exact so I am also curious how
others approach it.

Grace, Cleveland

David,

This question has come up now and then and there might also be
something on it in the archives. In the meantime, I find there are
several ways to solve the problem

  1. When you reticulate, you create seveal layers of different metal
    structures. On the top is pure silver, directly underneath is an
    uneven layer of oxidized scale, below that is copper and finally more
    sterling. This ‘sandwiching’ makes not only for an uneven surface,
    but also a very pourous structure…not unlike fired PMC.

In order to solder directly to the surface you must first even out
the surface area where the join will be and second, remove or reduce
the porosity. You can achieve some level of success by;

  1. Using a small diamond or Si wheel to grind a pathway along the
    route of your intended join. This evens the surface, roughens it and
    cuts down below the difficult to solder upper layers.

  2. You can burnish the pathway but this can be tricky if the join
    will be very narrow.

  3. You can chase a pathway with a small chasing chisel.

  4. You can try fusing the join. This would require the use of fine
    silver bezel wire and very clean reticulated surfaced. Temp control
    will also be tricky…but it does work.

Let us know what works for you. I am just finishing a piece with a
large reticulated bail with a bezel set garnet on the face and a
large curved bail on the back. Using the grinding method, I
encountered no problems.

Cheers, Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! dcdietz@comccast.net

David,

I do my pieces similarly to yours. I solder the bezel to a larger
back plate of 26 or 28 gauge sheet, pierce the reticulated piece and
slip it over the bezel and solder it to the back plate then add an
edge wire. Piercing the hole in the reticulated piece takes some
care to get a close fit as you have found out. There was a pendant
project in the Lapidary Journal this past November using this
method.

I also cut my bezel strips from a larger sheet of 28 gauge Fine
Silver. This lets me get the bezel the exact width I need instead of
depending on the stock widths available from suppliers. I also do
gold the same way.

I have found that when you explain the reticulation process to your
customer, it adds significantly to the “mystique” of the piece and
your skills. This translates into getting a higher price for your
work.

Happy hammering.
Bill

Hi There,

I’ve been using reticulation in my work for a year now and just
completed a small body of work using it. Reticulation is wonderful
once you become used to it. When using sheet I first use a nylon
mallet to tap the sheet down so it is a little more regular, this has
minimal effects on the appearance. Once I have fairly flat sheet I
just solder the bezel on. The small gaps don’t seem to matter as I
use hard solder most of the time and the reticulation is sort of
mushy at this temp. I normally observe the bezel settle into the
surface of the sheet. I’ve had a lot of success soldering to
reticulation by using this mushy state to conform to the piece I am
attaching. Maybe not the ‘correct’ way to do it but it works for
me!

Good Luck,
Jocelyn Henderson

Lee, I confess to having been out drinking with a friend tonight but
I cannot for the life of me see how the method you suggest for doing
this is any easier than what David was trying to do. If anything it
is far more complicated and time consuming. Quite frankly what he
was doing is probably the fastest way it can be done.

Daniel R. Spirer, GG
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
@spirersomes
www.spirersomes.com

Daniel,

The way David was describing his method might be less time consuming
(although I doubt it), it has a real possibility of developing a
major flaw to the construction of the piece. All that is needed is
one slight mistake in the filing and then it’s either tossing the
piece out the window or trying to fill in the gaps with solder (not
a very good solution I’m sure you agree). Although my suggested
method might be time consuming it offers the best possible
protection against these mistakes thus saving oneself a great deal
of frustration.

I still did not get your joke about your being out drinking with a
friend having anything to do with what I was suggesting.

Lee Lyssimachou
Lee Feenix Art Workshop
Greece

Hi David,

Soldering a bezel to reticulated sheet is somewhat problematic no
matter how you do it. My preferred method is to grind a seat in the
reticulated metal using various burs (whatever shapes work best,
basically). The idea is to create a flat enough surface for the
bezel to sit on comfortably. You don’t have to be as precise as when
you saw out a hole to fit the bezel into. Slips of the hand are
easily masked because of the texture of the reticulation. Just be
careful not to make the seat overly large. Beth

Hi Folks,

Question for ya:

I’m starting to work with some sterling sheet I reticulated a while
back. I want to set some cabochons in bezels on the sheet surface.
The solution I chose was to pierce the sheet, and file to fit a bezel
cup I made and solder it in. Pretty tedious, and high potential for
error.

I can’t really see an effective way to solder a bezel directly to
the sheet, since it has an irregular surface.

Any thoughts?
Rawat Sani

Rawat,

Been there, done that. I have a couple of ways to overcome that
problem. One is to anneal and hammer flatter the area in which you
want the stone to sit. Then seat your bezel on a bit of a flatter
surface.

Another is to pierce out the shape of the cabochon, then solder your
bezel into the open space, slightly pound out the cut out silver and
then solder it to the bezel base. Easier to do than to explain.

One last suggestion is to seat the bezel as best you can with some
gaps here and there, then use Silver Metal Clay and create a shape
around the base of the bezel and torch fire it. No more visible
gaps.

HTH
Terrie

A similar question came up a while ago on Orchid and the consensuses
was that the best route was to saw out a bit from the reticulated
metal, in the shape of the stone, and set the bezel down in the cut
out bit. I don’t recall if you’re supposed to put a flat metal
backing over the back of the hole.

Anyone?
Elaine

Elaine Luther
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay

Try using a blunt or flat faced punch and flatten where the bezel is
to be attaced. Your repousse’/forming tools are useful in this
regards.

Good luck!

well I would If your are not going to taper the bezel. Drilling the
hole and soldering it from the back is preferable

robert whiteside
www.robertwhiteside.com