Apologies if I am wrong. I carat equals 100 points. Therefore a 1 pointer is.01ct. Therefore a 4 pointer is.04ct. Therefore a ten pointer is.10ct. and a half carat stone is.50ct. At least that is the way I have understood it to be.
Yep you got it right…and 1/4 of.01= a lot of little stones to
set.
Lisa, (new tires, fluids checked, snacks bought. Maps in car. Road
trip to ACC San Francisco tomorrow! Woot woot!) Topanga, CA USA
Hi All;
The problem with micro pave isn’t in the technique itself. The same
thing is happening with it that happened with invisible set stones.
Originally, you only saw invisible setting done by the old houses
like Van Cleef and Arpels, etc. It was show off stuff; very good
jewelers doing their best work to be appreciated by other very good
jewelers and it sold for dear prices. When mass manufacturers got
hold of it, it was done very poorly. I’ve actually seen invisible set
stuff, brand new, where the stones were glued in. Anything to get it
out the door, including cast in place.
The problem here is the cost of labor. Pave is very labor intense,
and low margin manufacturers aren’t going to do it if they can’t get
it done cheaply. They’ll cut whatever corners they can, and that
means technical shortcuts (like cast in place) and low skilled
"specialists", working for slave wages and finally, quality control
goes out the door.
I’ve seen a few good examples of micro pave, mostly set with half
and quarter pointers, that was well done. Obviously, it’s delicate
jewelry, not meant to be worn digging around in the garden. Now I’m
seeing half and quarter pointers, very poorly cut stones of low
quality, just clobbered into the setting. This stuff has never seen a
beading tool, the prong work is cast and just mashed over the stones,
and they fall out all the time. If one of my accounts begs me to fix
this stuff, I tell them I’ll give it a shot, but I make no
guarantees, it will cost them, I can’t estimate, and I don’t want to
see the same piece twice. You buy it, you live with it.
David L. Huffman
Its me again!
A 1/3rd of one point is measured at.0033 how is that??..:>) don’t
care how many of zero’s you’d use, they are still darned small.
(first zero is “tens”, second zero is “hundreds”, =>ad infinitum!)
Gerry!
Hi All,
Just something to think about. There is a good reason for setting
the very small stone. If you wish to call micro or not. When I design
a pendant with initials and a rim that is pavee’d. Using computer
progams to do layout, you only have so much room. If you use
anything larger than 3/4 pointer. It make the pendant just to big.
Most pendant need to stay around the size of a quarter, plus or
minus a bit. After you millgrain the letters there isn’t much room
for stone or the beads holding them. When I was first asked to set
one of these, the jeweller asked “how are you going to do it”. My
answer was “I’m going to set them by telepathy”.
Jim
Jim Zimmerman
Alpine Custom Jewellers & Repair
I came across an ad in PJM, Professional Jeweler Magazine for a
company that has hearts and arrows in small ideal cuts, pave and
micro pave in sizes from 0.50-0.005.
I think you got the numbers wrong here, ya don’t micro pave .50 how
about .05???..:>) which is 5 pointers and down to 1/2 point diamond
size. Slip of the decimal point, right,eh?..
Gerry!
Dear all
http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive/200608/msg00440.htm
YES, David Huffmans (shown below) letter is only 2 years old, but it
bears repeating… I submitted a visual resume to be a setter at very
well known upscale mfg’ing shop near me. The owner presented me with
a micro-set pendant that a client bought and has had lots of grief
with stones ‘falling out’.
I used my 10x power loupe and noticed not any two stones were set in
straight,level or being of the right depth. Some stones were
single-cuts mixed in with full-cuts or with I colour and lesser
quality.
This shop will be charging $500.00++ to remedy this problematic
pendant. Oh by the way, there are over 200 stones to mess with and
will take the setter ‘days’ to remedy the situation. You pay a cheap
price for the pendant, but pay again for the ongoing repairs…
Gerry Lewy