jonathan - cutting, polishing & setting opals comprise the largest
category of my ‘from scratch’ work. bezel setting opals is the only
way i feel that is truly safe; pressure setting with prongs is what
gave them a bad rep when it was actually inflexible jewelers who
deserved the bad name. how i do it:
-
i almost always add a little depth to the bezel, make it a bit
higher. solder to base, then feather the top edge with either a
cratex bullet or a fine diamond dust tapered bur or an old slightly
smooth one - that means grind the edge until you see almost no rim -
this will be about 3 - 4 mm wide. -
when the bezel is deeper than the opal i coil a piece of wire
inside the bezel that will bring it up to level so that about 1/16th
of an inch can be rolled/pushed over the opal edge, dry fit stone to
check. remove opal, leave wire coil. -
spread a dollop (sorry for the technical jargon here) of E6000
adhesive across the bottom of bezel cup up to the top of the wire & a
smidgen past it. set opal onto this glue, making certain that it’s
oriented to the best angle for the display of color: for earrings
hold opal vertically & rotate till you see the best fire & mark that
direction with a magic marker arrow on top. -
any adhesive that oozes up past the opal edge can be removed by
gently guiding a tapered wood skewer around inside the bezel - don’t
worry about it though since it locks in the stone. leave the whole
mess on a flat surface to cure overnight. next day push in the 4
compass points of bezel & finish rolling/pushing at points
in-between, always going to opposite sides with each push - it will
be very easy to do since the opal won’t move.
=>=>DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANYONE WHO SAYS IT IS WRONG TO USE
ADHESIVE IN A SETTING SUCH AS THIS! ready-cut opals are often
finished with a low domed back - not a practice i recommend. all
that’s needed is a light rotation of the back edge on 800 to 1500
grit paper to smoothe the edge & prevent chipping. the adhesive does
more than hold the stone, it acts as a buffering/dampening backing
for the opal. it also ensures a longer life should the stone
dehydrate slightly over time by stabilizing it against cracking.<=<=
sincerely -
ive
End of forwarded message