I’ve been asked to make a ring and set it with a 5.75mm diamond ,
sounds easy enough. The problem comes up with the way I am asked to
set the stone , I have been asked to set the stone in a band made
from 18 ga 18Kt round wire .You could say an 18ga jumpring .I have
no problem making the ring or cuting the seat , just when it comes to
setting the stone on a permanent basis in this setting is my problem
.It is prefered to have it set with no prongs and as much dia showing
as possible, I’ve made 3 attempts with no luck and now call upon the
professionals on Orchid in hopes of a suggestion or method that will
work.Any sugestions , no matter how simple they may seem to the
professionals are needed and appreciated. Thanks Timothy
Hi Tim, I just took a few photographs of a similar ring that i make
using an oval stone and posted it on a special page of my website. It
will be there for about 3 or 4 days before i delete it. Here is the
page http://www.racecarjewelry.com/page30.htm Hope this helps out.
Daniel Grandi http://www.racecarjewelry.com
My approach to a piece as described would be to treat it as a bezel or
flush setting . I would go a little heavy on the bezel and set the
stone extra deep. I would cut the seat with hart burrs just enough to
slip and tuck the diamond into place, of course you do need a well cut
diamond for this to work properly , no mine cut stones, if you do it
just right it will be tight when it goes in. Then I would use my
gravermax to work the gold down and shape it round at the same time. At
last dress the edge to look like 18ga round wire. It might help to
burnish the inside edge then use a silicon polishing wheel in a
bullet shape and cut the tip to be flat and dress it to polish the
inside as desired. I have done simmailar peices and they never come out
when done this way, the only problem is the diamond is set a lttle
deep . The other way is to solder your preshaped and fitted 18ga ring
over the diamond as in retipping , this to will work but ??
Timothy. I have set a diamond into a jump ring using the following
steps: 1: With a graver carve a groove in a straight piece of 18 gauge
round wire. 2: Bend the wire around the girdle of the stone and trim
the ends so it is as close to snug as possible. The diamond will
still be loose. 3: Place the diamond in the wire bezel in a conical
bezel forming block (a dapping block will work too.) 4: Tap the wire
bezel with steel punch with roughly the same diameter as the bezel.
This punch will have to be hollowed out to protect the table of the
stone. You want to be hitting the gold ring not the diamond. The
diamond and the joint in the wire will now be very tight. 5: Solder
the joint with the diamond in place while you are soldering the bezel
to the piece. Let me know how it works. Anthony
Hi Timothy
I have two alternatives for you. #1 You could take a jumpring, cast so
that it’s top inside edge is squared off, sink it into shellac and
burnish down the metal after cutting a tight seat. This is
essentially a gypsy setting. By burnishing the squared off top edge
you will round it, thus restoring the jumpring look. Next remove it
from the shellac, clean all remnant shellac by soaking in alcohol,
and solder the setting with diamond in place on the ring. #2 might be
considered cheating by some. Take an unsoldered jumpring, a little
too small to accept the stone, cut a seat with a hart burr, snap the
stone in place and, while keeping tension on the jumpring to cinch it
tightly against the stone, solder it shut.
Hope this helps, Tom Tietze
The Artisan Workshop
Timothy. I have set a diamond into a jump ring using the following steps: 1: With a graver carve a groove in a straight piece of 18 gauge
YIKES! This sounds pretty scary. I can’t see myself hammering on a
stone when I can’t, in fact, see the stone. Have you actually tried
this? I’ve done something similar. Make a jump ring out of heavy
guage wire, the inside diameter of which is slightly smaller than the
diamond. The ring, at this point, is not soldered closed, but only
tensioned closed. Then, carefully, and patiently, using a 45 degree
bearing bur, quite small, card a notch all the way around inside the
jump ring. Then “spring” the ring over the girdle of the stone. If
there is a gap in the ring, unsnap it and cut the channel deeper. If
the stone is lose, unsnap it and fun a saw blade through the seam in
the ring. When you get a tight fit, flux it sufficiently with boric
acid disolved in ethyl alcohol, flux it, then gently bring it up to
temperature and drop a tiny pallion of hard solder on the seam. When
There’s an easy way to do this…set it in a tube (round) bezel,
then cut off the bottom. You can file it round to look like a wire.
Setting it in a tube instead of trying to set it into a wire makes
it infinitely easier to hang on to…
This is not a copy of Whitney Boin’s post ring, is it?
zaruba.