I bought some amethyst briolettes at the last gem & mineral show I
went to. I bought a whole strand. Now I want to use them on earrings
and necklaces and find the holes are VERY small. 26g wire will not
fit through them. The only thing I can get to go through them is some
thin softflex beading cord. So rather then throwing up my hands and
just finding beading necklace designs for these is there a way I can
make the holes bigger to use my 26g or 24g wire? I have a vice and a
flex shaft but am worried I may mess them up because the apex is
small and thin. Any thoughts?
I bought some amethyst briolettes at the last gem & mineral show I
went to....and find the holes are VERY small.
I just had that same problem a couple days ago. Fortunately, I had a
diamond coated drill bit I bought from Stuller. I used plenty of
water and went slowly, but it wasn’t long before I had the holes
bored out so that I could use a fairly heavy gauge of beadalon.
Fortunately, I only had 7 large chalcedony beads to bore out. Don’t
know how much patience you have if you’ve got do ream out a lot of
them. Better get a few of the drill bits if you’ve got a lot, because
after a while, the diamond particles break off the bit.
...the holes are VERY small. 26g wire will not fit through them...
Even if you manage to redrill them, it would take so much time you’d
be better off just buying new ones, unless you place no value on
your time. Plus, the holes would need polishing…
I suggest that you either come up with a design that uses the
softflex, or that you make or buy caps (available from Rio and
elsewhere) and glue them on. You might want to roughen the part that
goes under the cap, if you do this, to improve adhesion.
I have had similar problems with brios, but depending on the gem
material, most of it is too delicate to try to enlarge the holes at
the top of the thin point. If you are working with soft gem material
like topaz, peridot, labradorite, citrine, etc, you will probably
break more of the brio’s than you will enlarge the holes. Why don’t
you try 28g or even 30g wire and try hangman’s noose knots around
them instead of jump rings? (assuming you are making jump rings).
Fortunately, I had a diamond coated drill bit I bought from
Stuller.
They also make a diamond coated bead reamer. I don’t remember who
makes the one I have but it came with a pen vise handle and several
different reamers and a burr to finish the end of the hole. The
reamers are about two inches long and tapered. Hopefully this will
help.
It's a PITA, but you can use a hand chuck and reamer. Be sure to
ream the beads under water, as this will help mitigate cracking and
chipping. I would hesitate to use the flex shaft for this because
you may destroy more of these beads than you save that way.
There are two types of bead reamers. There is a 4 sided metal tapered
type which if used extremely carefully will enlarge a hole and is
what has been traditionally before diamond tools were so widely
available and inexpensive. These tools will break a stone bead very
quickly, these are not used under water. Tapered diamond points used
with a flex-shaft are very easy to use, I just dip the point in water
and hold the bead between my fingers and very slowly, at low
speed,gently drill a little, wet again, drill a little, wet again. It
is heat and pressure that will cause cracking. You must go straight
into the original hole, as going in crooked will cause cracking.
I use Crystalite brand “tripple ripple” diamond bit drills. Starting
with their smallest a.75mm bit and work up in size to the hole I
need. Using my flex shaft and a small dish of water ( flat bottom
glass ash tray works well ) I drill under water. Drill into the bead
slightly then flip it over and drill through from the other side.
This way you wont blow out the other side. Then I use a diamond ball
bur 600 grit or finer about 3x the size of the hole to slightly
counter sink the hole to get rid of the sharp edge. Sharp edges will
chip and crack and look bad. Work in water and DON’T BREATH THE DUST.
Briolette holes can be enlarged no problem with my ultrasonic drill.
I can also drill holes in any gem material (except diamond) from
0.375 mm to 4.0+ mm in diameter. If your briolettes warrant quality
work and you do not want to risk breaking the stones give me a call.
In the past have drilled stones of up to $35,000 value. Prices vary
depending on quantity, material value, hole diameter, hole length,
material toughness and precision needed.
See this link for more about my ultrasonic drilling
services:
Steve Green
Rough and Ready Gems, Inc.
Fine gem quality briolettes and ultrasonic drilling.
See us in Tucson at GJX # 700
A couple of items to add to Michael’s suggestions that might be
helpful:
Let the diamond tool do the work ( very important); use very light
pressure.
If you’re concerned about keeping the hole straight, after you’ve
started your hole and as Michael suggests flip it over, if not as
proficient as Michael, use a piece of material, say plastic sheet,
drill a hole the size of the drill you’re using into the plastic
insert a guide, a short piece of wire or whatever, to hold the side
you’ve just drilled. It helps in aligning the position of the diamond
drill.
It is a challenge to have the look of thick wire threaded through
briolettes; however, there is an easy way to get bead/briolette
holes larger.
First of all 26g is a large gauge to use in general for briolettes
that are under 20cm height. 28g goes through most, 30g for small
diamond beads, but the wire becomes very fragile in anything higher
than 14k gold, i.e. you cannot rework/rewrap the wire
There are diamond saw wires that you can put into the frame of a
regular metal saw that come in.010,.015 and.018. All you have to do
is thread the diamond saw blade through the briolette hole to ream
just enough to get the next size gauge. It’s more gentle than a
flexshaft and a cheap easy solution. They are hard to find and I just
found a new supplier, but it’s back at the studio I work in, so I’ll
email it to you later this week.
That sounds like a very useful tool–a tiny diamond saw blade.
Please post that supplier to all of us. I would also be interested in
getting some of those.