Donna Snimazu,I was intrested in your response to the fusing
question.Particularly the part where you say you do cleanup after
stone setting.I would think you would do primary cleanup prior to
stone setting???
Ralph Cross
Fremont Jewelers
Donna Snimazu,I was intrested in your response to the fusing question.Particularly the part where you say you do cleanup after stone setting.I would think you would do primary cleanup prior to stone setting????
Ralph, I polish the interior of the ring but don’t bother polishing
the sides or top if, for instance, I’m drilling and ajouring the holes
for a bead set wedding band. The reason I don’t bother polishing the
top and sides is because I don’t want to have to repeat polishing
should the ring get scuffed in the drilling, ajouring, setting phases.
The ring is of course blanked out in the sense that everything is
filed and sanded true and the dimensions are correct. I just don’t
bother doing any final polishing until after the ring is set with the
exception of the ring’s interior. First of all, it’s unlikely that
I’ll scuff the interior of the ring once it’s polished and second, I
don’t want to gunk up the ajouring once the stones are in.
Perhaps you’re thinking about preliminary cleanup prior to the
setting? I ajour, drill, prefit, precut the seats if this is what you
mean about prefinishing. Then I set and raise beads, bright cut,
burnish the beads and polish the setting as well as the rest of the
ring. If I do any polishing inside the ring, it’s with very little
compound and very lightly.
Sometimes when I do channel bands made up of solid stock, I
specifically leave extra metal on the sides to give more strength to
the ring while I’m setting. After I’m done setting, I might lighten
up the ring by filing and sanding off some material on the sides. I
might sand a little if there’s any distortion to the sides caused by
the setting process. At any rate, it gives me an opportunity to make
aesthetic judgment after the setting is done with regard to the
proportion of metal walls vs diamonds. I can go for a hefty gold look
and strong walls or I can go for a more fragile, thin wall look.
Depends on the customer’s taste and it depends on how hard the
customer is on his/her jewelry. If I prepolished everything, I’d be
wasting time because I’d be filing off the prepolished metal.
The German jeweler I apprenticed under could not stand redundant
work. To him, it was wasted motion and time.
Hope this helps clear up any confusion or misunderstanding.
Donna Shimazu