I have recently been asked to help design a wedding band for a family
member. My experience in jewelry has mainly been with sterling silver
and enamel. Though I have some design ideas for the band, I have
questions about what the best material for the diamond setting would
be. Is it possible/safe to flush/gypsy set a square diamond into a
platinum band or would white gold be better? Also, I plan on the band
having hard square edges, which of those two metals would be less
resistant to “dings” or dents through normal wear? Any advice would
be very appreciated!
Is it possible/safe to flush/gypsy set a square diamond into a
platinum band or would white gold be better
Jillian, yes it is possible and safe, and IMO platinum is the best
metal for what you suggest. Two caveats: The #1 mistake novices at
designing such pieces make is to not allow for the height of the
stone in the band, and the culets poke through the bottom. Second is
that flush setting a square stone is pretty advanced to do well…
I have done many Princess Stones in the Gypsy style, this is not for
the beginners, by any stretch. It looks easy, but there it should
end. Sorry to deflate your balloon, it is not easy for anyone who
wishes to learn setting…of course you must first measure the depth
of the stone against the thickness of the tiffany band. As you must
first of all allow about 50% extra thickness for the simple fact of
lowering the stone INTO the band and then the culet must never be
allowed to touch the persons finger.
To explain the technique would take me a simple 400 worded essay
plus many pictures, to cover all of the aspects in Gypsy setting any
Princess stone. This setting is not for the faint-of-heart!.
flush setting a square stone is pretty advanced to do well....
Yeah, no kidding! I tried it once (so far), just for fun, using a
colorless topaz and silver so that all that would be lost was my
time. Well, my daughter likes the result, but I sure wouldn’t put my
name on it!
This is not my favorite job for sure, but it comes up every once in a
while. I find that when I see this type of setting job coming up it
helps my focus to review a DVD I purchased some time back, “Bezel and
Flush Setting” by Blaine Lewis. I did this type of setting work
before I ran across Mr. Lewis’ video, but I find adapting his
techniques to my own style works quite well. If some one has little
experience at this setting style his DVD would be a good starting
point, I think. At least we’re talking about flush setting in
Platinum and not flush setting emerald or fire opal in 18K white
gold: a REAL favorite of mine (note gray hairs)!
Flush setting was one of the first techniques that I was taught when
I was being trained as a setter. IF you have the proper instructor
and the proper tools and techniques it is really a VERY simple task.
Of course I have made some of my own special tools that now make the
techniques that I learned much easier. I also use these tools for
baguettes and other fancy stones too.
It doesn’t matter if you are setting a round, marquise or a princess
cut…the techniques are mostly still the same. The stone is just a
different shape and on any stone with points or corners you MUST
make sure to relieve the metal at the points to make sure that the
points don’t break off.
For practice, solder some type of U shaped holder to a penny, insert
the U shaped “holder” into the flat side of your ring clamp and drill
and set your stone in the penny. It will not teach you the proper
depth techniques but the copper will act similar to platinum in
relationship to feel and is cheap to work on.(newer pennies have zinc
in them so try and use a much older penny if you can) A good
burnishing tool and techniques are important too. You can practice
just burnishing them into the copper and you can use an electric
"hammer" tool also. This will give you the practice you need to learn
both techniques. If you use the hammer you must clean up all the
marks and make a neat job of it. Most likely you will also use a
burnishing tool or a graver to clean up the metal on the stone.
Copper is pretty unforgiving as to making marks in it…but it very
closely emulates what you will be working with when you are setting
something in platinum. If you want the white gold “feel” use a nickel
instead of a penny.