I have a roughly 9x7mm cushion cut sapphire. Since the bulk of the
customers budget is going towards the stone, I’m hoping to put it in
a standard premade mounting. I haven’t really seen many premade
mountings for cushions. Can one drop it into an oval or emerald cut
basket head? Does one work better than the other? I also like the
look of split prongs and am wondering if my prongs are thick enough
if I can just split the ends of the prongs with a superfine
separating disc and get the look I’m after…or do you think it will
compromise the strength too much? I was hoping to avoid doing a wax
or fabricate a basket, but I may have to. Any advice or
recommendations is greatly appreciated. I would make a bezel, but my
customer likes prongs.
Thanks in advance.
Leslie
Look for a wide prong Emerald cut setting. Reshape the top rail as
needed, slit the prongs with a .009" seperating disc. .016" is too
thick, go out of your way to get the skinny discs.
Split prongs would be the preferred way to set a cushion. Best
arrangement is to have one ‘prong’ on each side of the stone’s
corner.
Leslie, an Emerald cut basket head can generally be modified to fit
a cushion by filing the bars into a curve. This is of couse assuming
that the stone dimensions are the same as the box. You may find that
you will have to pull the prongs in to catch the cushion stone.You
will need a prong of 1.2mm or larger to split and I would definitely
do it with a 8/0 saw blade instead of a separating disc.
Good luck, Tim
Leslie, Try to find a cushion shaped setting. If not, then go with
the ovalas you can bend it into a cushion shape. An emerald cut
setting will just cause frustation and anger. If you are going to
split the prongs, do it after the stone is set and use an 8/0 saw
blade.
Have fun.
Tom Arnold