Prong setting a cab

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello everyone,

I have a stone setting problem.
I’ve made this slide pendant and the actual slide is a short cylinder
with 4 - 16g square wire prongs soldered along it. A a high 7 mm
round cab (flat bottom) is supposed to seat on the top of the
cylinder and be set with the 4 prongs.

All went well so far, except that I have no idea how to cut the
prongs to close them over the tall stone without distorting the
clean look of the square prongs. The cab does sit tight between the
prongs but because of it’s hight (5 mm) I cannot visualize the
final hight of the prongs and how to make them grip the stone
without clawing over it too much.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you!!
Irina

2

maybe if you file little notches with a triangular file into the
wires where you want the base of the stone to be. that way you have a
place where the stone can click into place, so your prongs don’t have
to be too long and cover up the stone. then, when your stone is in
place ( not tightened down yet) , cut the prongs to the desired
lengthe at an angle, so the the top surface of the wire is a diamond
shape angled with the highest point on the stone and the lowest point
on the outside. file and sand nice and smooth, push down on the
stone, finish as desired.

(psst…try it on a test piece first, I’m not 100% sure it’ll work)

good luck
Sparrow