Bezel question Pre-Made Bezels

Jewelry Discussion
1 
   The disadvantage of premade bezels is that you can only use
calibrated cabs and stones. If you don't do lapidary and cut
your own stones, or buy really interesting stones with baroque
or non-standard shapes--I guess you're ok. But you're missing
out on a lot design-wise.

I have to say I totaly disagree with this statement… Pre-made
bezels in the long run are very inexpensive… And Just because
the perfect size bezel does not exist for all stones, calibrated
or non calibrated, doesn’t mean they wont work… If you have an
odd size stone that needs a bezel… Simply buy a bezel bigger
than what you need and simply run a seperating disk thru one
side if it is a round bezel and use hard solder to solder it back
together… Bezels can be sized with alot less aggrivation than
buying bezel wire and trying to make bezels without breaking the
stone you are making them for…colored stones that is… (if the
bezel is for example an emerald cut bezel than cut one side at a
time solder togetherand repeat on the opposing sides… rember to
always use hard solder when sizing bezels… that way when you
sweat them to your piece they won’t come apart…)

Marc Williams
MarcCo. Jewelry Mfg.MarcCo
Jewelry Mfg…

2

Mark, Huh? I’m obviously not thinking about the same kind of
pre-made bezels that you are thinking about. I have seen (and
bought) punched bezels, round and oval, and cast bezels (various
shapes). The punched bezels are the cheapest and I use those on
wrap around rings that I sell to the tourists on Cape Cod and the
Islands. It allows the teens to have something to remember their
trip for under $20. But I can’t see how you can make a smaller
bezel out of one of those, or even the cast round or oval shapes.
You can’t exactly cut a pie piece out of it and have it work. A
square or rectangular cast bezel, yes. My theory has become, for
small stones (3-6mm cabs) get them calibrated and use the
premade bezels. If you are going to set a small stone on a gold
piece, with a large price tag, do it from scratch. If you have a
trick on those round and oval bezels, I would love to have it. I
would kneel at your feet and…yadda, yadda.

kathi parker