Hi I was going to make a PDF for this but you know.
So many people have big knuckles and when a round ring is put on it
slides all over the place.
Sold one of these big knuckle designs the other day with a lab grown
spinel, aqua colour, very beautiful got it from O’Neils Affiliated
about $5 from memory.
Ok make a flat ring band 5 mm wide 1.5 mm thick. Cut through solder
join.
Use half round pliers and turn ends up vertically. The ring above
was a square 7 mm stone.
Push shank in to ensure a tight fit. Put bezel into gap. Solder.
Height of “turn up” depends on stone size. Some rounding of shank
may be needed after soldering.
Set stone.
Now the trick with this design is that a correct fitting ring will
not go on the finger with the stone upright.
It will be too big.
But if the ring is turned sideways it slips over the big knuckle
with ease and when turned upright is a good fit.
And wow do the customers love it.
Using square stones makes soldering the bezel into the shank easy.
But square bezels can be a pain.
Less so with this very naughty trick. Which I only use on dress
stones aka very cheap. File the corners with a diamond file. So there
is no need to do the hard setting techniques for the corners. I never
do this with stones of value, just for the fun bling stuff.
With round or oval stones use a good size half round wire say 4 mm
by 2mm. When the ends have been turned up file the inside to fit the
shape of the bezel. I cover the inside with a sharpie so when I file
I can see the metal cut away evenly.
This is why I love my benchmate I just put the shank in and turn the
benchmate down towards me and file. Easy as.
Put in bezel and solder. I clean up the solder joins with sanding
stick 600 grit then 1200 grit. Tripoli the ring then Hyfin.
Note there is no need to file the bottom of the bezel to fit the
finger as it stands a little above the finger. I do use sandpaper in
a mandrel to take the square edge off the bezel and do a final clean
up with a green shofu point.
I will be making one of these rings tomorrow and will take a very
bad photo. So email me offline if you want a bad photo.
Also if you need a basic PDF on open back bezels email me.
all the best
Richard