hi all! curious about how to best approach the hammering down of metal when the bezel is rounded, as seen here in the attached photo. i realize there’s a sliver of flat metal pressing down on the stone, but i’m unsure of how to achieve that when the bezel wall is round.
on what part and at what angle would be best to approach from when hammering? my instinct would be to approach from the inside, rather than the outside, but i’m not sure! should i be setting up my wax or cad differently?
It could be shaped after setting
Could it have been fabricated or cast and then the stone set from behind. When I hammer set cabs, I will sometimes get to a point where the bezel appears round, but it is the same radius all the way around the cab. I usually remove more material at this stage and finish hammer setting until the bezel is flat and can be cleaned up. I also see this shape when I use a concave setting tool, but it is round. Keep us posted. Thanks…Rob
Great minds think alike Rob!
I was also going to say that there is a good chance that the stones are set from behind. It would be hard to make “bezel” edges be so sculpted without damaging the stones. Also, those look like highly included emeralds. Those pricey stones are very fragile.
Jeff
It almost looks like the stones were fit to a press formed tapered bezel. The bezel and stone were fit to a cast or fabricated setting and it was all done from the back. I wonder how the back looks.
Don Meixner
I often add 9k gold wire to the tops of bezel settings to add some gold in a less expensive way. Generally speaking - I cut the seat and then push from the top and then a little bit from the inside to get it on the stone and then clean up which generally brings it back to being round. I tend to use 1.5mm or 1mm wire to do this but I cant see if being an issue with bigger sizes. 9k gold is pretty tough so it holds it shape pretty well.
