Setting regular and irregular cabs

Jewelry Discussion
21

Lori

Get HARD charcoal blocks. You must have used the regular type, and
they do keep burning. The hard and you need to make sure it is hard
will not burn like that. I’ve found most charcoal blocks sold are
just one type, and it is the regular not hard. I know Rio and Otto
Frei both sell hard charcoal. I love my charcoal blocks. If they get
a bit irregular on the surface, I take outside to the back and use
the concrete walkway as a sanding surface. It sands off the surface
and I’m good to go.

As for the solderite board, again get the hard not the soft. You
won’t be burning holes in it. I used one 12x12 size board for nearly
6 years doing thousands, yes thousands of copper ornaments on it each
year. I finally gave it the heave ho. But do not try to wash off flux
and the like on it.

Brush with a stiff brush if you are worried, again do it gently.

You will have problems using communal supplies. As you go along, you
need to get your own things to insure no contamination. I’ve never
worried about finger prints on solder, and have never had a problem.
In fact in all my classes way back in the day, I was never taught a
thing about fingerprints on solder.

I use the white paste flux. If it gets a bit hard, I just make a
well and put some water in it. After a bit of a stir, I have a nice
soft flux again. I know many on here have a different method to take
care of their hard paste solder, but mine never gets that
hard.Communal soldering paste has the biggest problem of getting
dirty. No way around it with many people using the same flux. Best to
just buy your own supply. I’ve laso used the liquid flux. They are
both fine, it is just what you get use to using, and for me what I’m
doing that I will grab one over the other.

As to your bezel type, I have different pictures in my mind of what
you are doing. It might be helpful if you posted a picture. It sounds
like something you might need to encase part of it in one of the
putties that protect it from heat. I don’t know, but that is what I’m
picturing beyond a simple wire as the base. It also might help to use
a soldering pan with grain or lump stones in it to help support and
protect delicate parts. So a picture is valuable in this instance.

Aggie

1 Like
22

Hi Anna,

I tried to reply to your questions, but the end of my post,
including a link was missed off. So I tried to send it offline, but
my emails kept bouncing back as though your email address was wrong.

Helen
UK

23

I typically use 26g. fine silver bezel and fine silver sheet I cut
into strips. Lately, I’ve been using 24g bezel strip. Sometimes I
make my own by melting down fine silver into ingots and rolling them
out (recycling) and sometimes cutting strips out of fine silver
sheet. I generally hammer-set my bezels, so thickness of bezel strip
is not an issue. I may be a woman, but my hands are much stronger
than the average person from too many years of being a metalsmith. I
do find thicker metal gauges tends to absorb having to be moulded
into a form better than a thinner gauge. When I do solder, it is
usually Dandix or Grifflux, but in rare cases, Handy Flux or
Wolverine Flux (from Contenti), when I need flux immediately and run
to Airgas for white paste flux. I do find if I make myflux creamy,
like a heavy cream consistency, and dip my metals, I have better
brazing results. After all, I do thousands of bezels, so I’m fussy
about how I do it. As long as I keep oxidation from occuring, I
cankeep on brazing as long as I can. I air-cool my large bezels
before I quench or pickle. I have brazed so much in 30 years, I now
stick-solder my bezels instead cutting solder and placing them
around the bezel, and I do it on the outside, not inside the bezel.
I loathe solder lumps andghosts, so by solder on the outside of
bezel, I prevent solder ghosts. Just the way I do things. I strive
to do the most effecient way to do things. Joy

24 
Which brings me to why I prefer fine silver. No annealing. just fit
it, solder it, press over the stone to reshape, set in on the plate
and solder. Secondly as mentioned it is like butter to set. there
are those who say it is that very reason you should not use it. It's
a mechanical device to hold a small stone in place not an
automotive component

Forgive me for saying so, but this is ridiculous!

The original poster is not talking about small stones, nor is she
talking about soldering onto a back plate. She is talking about
making open backed stepped bezel settings to be soldered into a ring
shank. It HAS to have structural integrity and it has to be hard
wearing regarding the abuse a ring encounters, ie it needs to be as
scratch resistant as possible. Paper thin fine silver is not going to
stand up to that kind of wear. I’ve seen plenty of rings with
deformed stone settings and sometimes absent stones because the
setting was not up to the task it was required to do.

Bracelets and rings in particular should be made to be more hard
wearing than necklaces and earrings need to be. I use sterling for
everything because although it scratches easily, it is less prone to
do so than fine silver.

Helen
UK

25

Hi Helen, thank you for the advice, love to see that ring but there
was no link on your message.

Anna

26 
The biggest difference, however, is in the use of thicker metal. 

Yes, if youcontinue the one handed setting approach, then thicker
metal is going to make life even more difficult.

Take a ball bur, diamond works best, run it around that back plate,
gently take out a little material from the inside of the bezel, do
not touch the top of the bezel on the inside, only work just below
to top. If you have aball bur that touches the bottom and stood just
below the lip makes it easier.

You will have a concave surface, carefully push the bezel in
starting at thebottom. Work up not pushing in too hard, keep where
you are putting pressure so the bezel in coming in contact with the
stone as you work your way up. To high to fast can make a crease.

Try a practice piece for the first time if you need to so you can
feel what happens.

Women have less upper body strength, even I have to stand up
sometimes to get adequate strength.

27

Dear Anna,

I try with sterling for bezels before and I found it hard to set
thigh to the stone, is there a good method when setting with
sterling?

coupled with seeing the results of setting stones with thin fine
silver vs sterling, I can only conclude that using sterling should
be no more trouble than fine silver - if using suitable tools.
Imagine a goldsmith setting diamonds and other precious stones into
high karat golds and platinum. They don’t makeor use settings using
virtually paper thin metal, or necessarily set with one hand and a
rocking tool. They set the jewellery into shellac or thermoplastic
and then mount that in a suitable holding device, which frees up
both hands. Many times a hammer hand piece of a flexshaft will be
used - or a hammer and setting punch, which is what I use.

The biggest difference, however, is in the use of thicker metal.
Yes, if youcontinue the one handed setting approach, then thicker
metal is going to make life even more difficult, but if you give the
both hands free method a try, you’ll find that thicker bezels are
far more forgiving. Still, the aperture for the stone must be a
really good fit, with neither gapping nor areas that are too tight.
The height of the bezel above the stone’s girdle (or equivalent in a
cabochon) must not be excessive, as a) it’s not necessary - you only
need a very small amount of metal to hold the stone securely, b) it
produces a very ugly end result, and c) can lead to the bezel not
fitting tight to the stone, ie unsightly gapping.

The amount of force necessary when hitting the setting punch (brass
square section rod mounted in a handle, of which I have very
slightly domed the end)with the hammer is very small. I work in
small increments, only pushing thebezel in by very small amounts
each time, and always working on opposite “sides” of the stone.
Imagine a clock face. Move the bezel in toward the stoneat 12
o’clock, 6, 9, 3. Then I work between those places, so midway
between1-2, 7-8, 10-11 and 4-5. Inspect it with a loupe and then go
at it again ifthe bezel needs moving more. I usually find at this
stage that I need to work in a more downwards (with some inwards)
direction as opposed to the inwards (with a bit of downwards)
direction of the first movement of metal. If you’ve used thicker
metal than you’re used to, you’ll find that ability of themetal to
compress, is actually your friend. Move thin metal inwards around
the “clock”, and you may well find (especially if also too tall)
that when you’re trying to push the metal inwards, it will move out
in adjacent areas, and that no amount of work will ever make it
tight against the stone. Move thicker metal inwards around the
“clock” and you will find that it compresses and moves inwards, and
won’t spring out again, as the thicker metal won’t allow it to.
There are numerous advantages to using thicker metal, but my
favourite is the fact that it just looks better. It just looks more
expensive andluxurious if your bezels are made with thicker metal,
and so would potentially be able to sell for more money too. When
the metal is down onto the stone sufficiently, I like to go round
with my setting punch in a burnishing action, so sideways along the
bezel top (outside edge). This helps to smooth out any tool marks
which I may have inadvertently made. A file and then polishwill
remove any which are more stubborn.

One thing I almost forgot to mention is that to make the most of my
thicker metal settings, I make sure that before setting, the bezel
top is sanded absolutely flat, using a very, very fine sandpaper.
This creates a definite, visible surface (unlike the razor-like edge
of thinner metal) to the top of thebezel, which after setting, takes
on a more angled appearance, similar to a 45 degree angle which
really frames the stone beautifully and can then be
polished/burnished to a mirror-like shine. Hopefully the link below
will showa ring I made my daughter last year. I made the bezel from
1mm thick sterling silver. You can see the surface that was once the
top, flat surface of the bezel.

28 
Hi Helen, thank you for the advice, love to see that ring but
there was no link on your message.

Yes Anna, unfortunately my message was cut short. I’ll try and send
it again and hope it’s allowed through intact next time. I attempted
to send it to you privately too but it kept bouncing back unsent!

Helen
UK

29 
Get HARD charcoal blocks.

The best hard charcoal blocks come from Allcraft. It is a compressed
charcoal block.

I would not use anything else.

Very durable. Stays flat, does not degrade like other charcoal
blocks.

30

Just a second to Aggi’s post. I have always used the largest size
HARD charcoal block. I found many years ago that a good preventive
step is to take an 18 or 20 gauge scrap copper or bronze wire long
enough to easily go around the block’s rectangular shape (make sure
it is annealed), and bend it to carefully fit around the corners.
Center the bent wire around the block and twist the ends together.
Once that is snug, and the more carefully you do this the better it
works, grip the wire and twist vertically on each of the long sides
with a pair of wide nose pliers. This results in the wire sinking
slightly into each of the corners and will hold the charcoal together
through an amazing amount of use. Then to clean up there is always
the sidewalk, or if you live in the country, as I do, a medium/fine
wood rasp works just as well. I have never had a problem with the
block continuing to burn, and when worn out, I save the chunks to
lean projects on when working with odd shaped bracelets etc.

I also use paste flux, but to stretch a jar of flux, I use a small
Tupperware sort of container with a couple of tablespoons or so,
amount of flux at a time. I use some sticky stuff (I believe museum
paste is the general term) to stick the container to my bench, and
just put the top on to seal it each night. If it dries out I just add
a few drops of distilled water and mix with my flux brush. I use a
good quality sable paint brush and just rinse it thoroughly each
night to keep it from corroding. This allows me to place even the
smallest snippet of gold solder exactly where needed. When I
construct a high end 18kt and above project, I like to use nothing
but hard solder through the whole project. This all transfers to
silver projects and all (easy, med, and hard) solders. One of the
best things about this forum is the diversity and individual ways
each of us has developed to accomplish the same thing. I myself am
one of those self-taught guys that started with a plumbers hand held
canister torch. As many of the posts have suggested, practice,
practice, practice. Then I usually practice some more! Thomas III

31

Hi all

Still, the aperture for the stone must be a really good fit, with
neither gapping nor areas that are too tight. 

The height of the bezel above the stone's girdle (or equivalent in
a cabochon) must not be excessive, as a) it's not necessary - you
only need a very small amount of metal to hold the stone securely,
b) it produces a very ugly end result, and c) can lead to the bezel
not fitting tight to the stone, ie unsightly gapping.

I agree completely.

This does take practice, but a good fit for the stone and correct
height of the bezel is crucial for a good set.

For faceted stones cutting the seat is very important and can be a
real pain. The same for cabs that have curved backs.

Practice and eventually you will get it a bit like reading
Shakespear.

all the best
Richard

32

My suggestion is to purchase a sheet of fine silver that is a bit
thicker then what you use for bezels. Cut a strip and make your
bezel, solder it andthen file the side so it is a bit thinner at the
top where you will be moving it over the stone. That is what I was
taught and it seems to work for me quite well.

Gerald Livings