Howdy! We generally bezel set stones and lack much experience
with prong- settings. We work with sterling silver, and soldered
on a snap-tite(or is it snap-set?both?) 3mm 4-prong round
setting. When I tried to set the stone(yes, its calibrated), and
the stone fit perfectly. However, the setting was absolutely
dead soft. I tried work hardening it, burnishing it, etc., but
it remained dead soft, and wouldn’t hold the stone. HELP! What
went wrong??? Does it have something to do with properly
quenching it?
Thank You in advance,
God Bless,
the other Donna…
Hi Donna, I understand you confusion. I am wondering the same. I
set stones frequently for many years, for different jewelers, and
when they bring me this kind of 4 prongs snap set (as you say)
(but we have to be precise I am talking about ez setting cast,
the most common, instead of thickest ones like peg or wire ones)
I always put the setting bur in it and set the stone as a normal
setting. The notches are to high and not enough deep for the way
I do. Generaly the girdles of the stones are thicker than the
notches, how can you snap stones in this. I really do not know if
someone use this with a good setter’s feeling. I think it is a
commercial trick for fast low quality jewel. If someone use it
correctly I would like to have explanations too. About this kind
of settings (commercial ones), if you are using sterling ones
they are only good for practice, they are really to soft (we use
this sometimes at school) I think you should buy normal 4 prongs
(white gold palladium) settings, they are stronger and easier to
set.Yellow gold prongs settings are to soft too. You look at them
and they bend. Vincent Guy Audette Right in snow storm.
Donna, don’t use snap-tite settings. They are worthless. You
can order prong settings from Tripps that are cast and ready to
set. They come in sterling and all sizes from round to oval and
others. They work much better for solder jobs. Hope this helps…
Janine in Redding
Donna:
Was it a good heavy die-struck seting? Whenever I supply heads
for a job I always get the heaviest one available, especially for
a larger/more valuable stones. Cast heads will do and are all
that’s available in some cases but for diamonds, I always use
heavy die-struck heads. Platinum is ever better.
If your “snap-tite” are the same product we imagine it to be,
(not all that hard anyway), your problem is indeed the soldering
temp used. If at all possible, solder with a smaller more intense
flame directed to the back of the main article.
Hope this is of some help.