I have searched the fantastic and informative archives for details
on making a collet for a large Emerald cut stone. I know that there
are a number of ways to go about this project. I have a 16 x 10
stone and three 6x4 stones which require 18ct whitegold settings
with filagree work on the side, and am deciding if I should pierce,
fabricate or, buy an emerald cut collet punch. If you know of any
good on this project, your help would be much
appreciated. My soldering and fabricating skills are very good, but
I have not been required to make settings of this kind before. The
large stone is for a ring, and the 3 smaller, for earrings and
pendant.
There are a variety of ways to make settings (Collets), but I’ll
quickly tell you mine. For the smaller ones, I might see if I could
find a stock setting that’s just right, and then add the embelishments
it’s easier, but then there’s also no solder, to start. For the
larger one, make a rectangular shape just a bit smaller than the
stone - it should be fairly stout wire. Get a square wire of maybe 2mm
or so, even 2.5mm, and mark it with dividers. Your stone is 16 x 10,
so a 15 x 9 shape is pretty good, so mark the wire 15, 9, 15, 9, and
then cut that length off. Then cut a 45 deg. notch on each mark, and
cut the ends to 45 deg., something like 75% to 90% of the way
through. Then you can bend it at those places into a rectangular
shape and solder it. You can also use four wires, or two wires with
right angles, and there is some “fudging” needed to get it square and
the right size. You can gain quite a bit of length, if it’s short,
just by hammering it on an anvil - anneal it, if you do. When that’s
done, and cleaned up, file the “Inner” side of it flat, and make
another rectangle about another MM smaller on each side. Since it’s a
ring, it needs to be flat and wide, like 4-5 mm wide, because when
it’s on the ring you’ll need to file the short end to a radius
corresponding to the circle of the ring size. Then get some square
wire that corresponds to the size of the window you want. (The space
between the upper and lower galleries), and solder one piece of it on
each corner of the upper gallery, on the “Inner” side. File that even
and flat, and then solder the lower gallery on top of those - Voila’
instant, even, undergallery. File the inside of the top gallery to
an angle for the stone first, file the sides of the two galleries
even and flat, then file the corners at an angle, and solder your
prongs there. That is the mechanics, but there are many variations -
the angles can vary fairly widely for asthetic purposes. You can put a
curved piece of wire on the bottom, which will give you a varying
window instead of a straight one. A trick - instead of trying to
build a bottom piece that’s angled out, do one of two things: Easiest
is to make it thick enough to file - I’m referring to being able to
make the two galleries flush with each other - a flat-sided setting
instead of stepped wire. If you want to make it thinner, make the
rectangle first and solder it, and then sawcut each corner 85%
through, which will permit you to use pliers to pull each side
outwards a bit to an angle. If it’s not too much angle, you should be
able to solder as I said, and the prong will cover the gap in the
corners. Since you say you are doing filligree type stuff in the
windows, it’s up to you whether you do some of it before the two
galleries are assembled - if it’s fine, you’re probably better to
make the setting, and then add the gingerbread after, but that’s up
to you.
I hope you can follow this - I know pictures would help a lot, but
that’s a whole big thing to do…