"Patricia A. Swan" wrote in message
...
Hey, guys.

I've been diving through my archives trying to find a specific post
with directions on setting stones into pronged settings. I'm pretty
positive that it's a Peter Rowe post, but I'm striking out finding it.
The technique has the prongs being progressively brought up from the
sides instead of being pulled back away from the setting and then
pushed back. The post was extremely clear and easy to follow. I've
got a friend who is setting 80 cabs and is having problems getting her
prongs to seat correctly over the stone and I was going to pass over a
copy of my archive of this post and now I *can't locate it*.

Does anyone recognize this and have a copy that they can lay their
hands on easily? She's got about another two and a half weeks before
the big show these cabs are due to go up for sale at.

Pat Swan
Six Swans Designs
--
* Patricia A. Swan, moderator, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated *
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[Perhaps this is the one:]

From: "Don Robinson"
Subject: videos on stone setting inst.
Date: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 4:00 PM

Our moderator, Peter Rowe, sent me the following message when I was learning
to set stones. Follow his instructions and I believe you will learn
everything you need to set prongs. It has solved all my problems.

Here are his instructions to me:

Many setters just push prongs over with a flat/blunt ended pushing tool.
Not a
rocker (which easily slips). I use a tool, sold for that purpose, which is
just
square steel stock in a graver type handle, who's end is just flat and
square
across, not polished. I've sanded it slightly concave with a sanding drum
to
make it even less likely to slip. If the head is strong enough that you can
just push a tip without the whole head racking to the side, this works just
fine
for most setting work. Takes a bit more work than pliers, but it works.

If you prefer setting pliers, and they often DO help a lot, then try this:
In auto parts type stores, you can get a slim, miniature version of the
plumber's channelock type pliers. You know, the type where you can, when
the
hinge is wide open, slide the jaws closer or farther apart. The full size
version is great on plumbing pipes. this little one is made for adjusting
ignition parts, and are called ignition pliers, I think. Take the teeth off
the
jaws, groove, if desired, the upper jaw to fit over a prong. If you like,
round
over the sides of the lower jaw so it won't leave gashes inside a ring
shank...
And voila. You've got a setting plier for a lot less money than a
traditional
one, with a much wider range of sizes it will grip.

but you may well not need that either. While simple setting techniques say
just
put the stone in the seat and bend the tips over the stone, there is another
way. Here, you cut a seat, then bend the tips over, with normal needle nose
pliers, to the same, or even further degree, that you would with the stone
in
place, but without the stone in place. Without the stone, you can just grab
the
tip and bend it cleanly over with small pliers, with the plier jaw
maintaining a
crisp inner corner to the bend. clean up, with files, burrs, or whatever,
the
inner corner of the seat under that tip, if it needs it, till it's the same
angle as the stone girdle, except slightly tighter (tip bent very slightly
too
far down) Now grab the entire prong, not just the tip, and bend it back a
little
bit from it's base, or where it attaches to the upper gallery level of the
head.
Just a little is enough. Do this to all, and if you've got it right, you
can
just barely slip the stone into the head despite the fact the tips are
already
bent over.

Now, with anything that can push, a prong pusher, graver handle, side of a
plier jaw, your teeth, etc, push the prongs straight towards the stone.
They
won't go tight, of course, since they spring back, but you can move them
most of
the way. This is just to take up much of the movement needed, not to tighten
the
stone. Now grasp the prongs by adjacent (side to side) pairs of prongs, in
ordinary pliers, and squeeze them together slightly. They move towards each
other, side to side, parallel to the girdle, rather than directly towards
the
stone. Go around the entire stone this way, each prong being grasped twice,
bent first to one side (towards one neighbor), and then towards the other.
They'll end up evenly spaced again. But they'll also end up tight to the
stone,
since in this bending, a slight amount of movement is towards the stone.
Since
the side to side bending is much more, and is enough to overcome the elastic
limits of the prong so it stays bent, the simultaneous bending towards the
stone
also stays there, without springing back away from the stone. When you're
doing
this, it is not necessary to get the prongs to bend side to side very much.
Often, you're just slightly squeezing the prongs sideways, and it can seem
that
they haven't moved much or at all, yet when you're done going around the
stone,
somehow they've all tightened up on the stone a good deal. if needed, go
around
the stone more than once till the prongs are all nicely snugged up on the
stone.
This is all very gentle and modest, in terms of pressures used. You ease up
on
getting things tight and secure, rather than needing to get it all at once,
so
you don't damage the stone. It's surprising how fast this tightens the
prongs
on the stone, despite the fact that it seems you're bending the prongs only
sideways. If you consider the actual directions the prongs bend, though,
you
realize that while most of the bending direction is sideways, a small amount
of
the movement is indeed towards the stone.

This method of getting prongs to move towards the stone by moving them side
to
side is what GIA called the "vector" technique of prong tightening, when
they
taught it in the stone setting class I took from them way too many years
ago.
Works very well. It's also often the best way to tighten loose stones in
existing jewelry. Since you never push the prong directly towards the
stone,
the stresses on the stone which might chip it, are much much less than if
you
simply tried to bend prongs directly towards the stone. And because you can
precisely form and shape the seat of the stone without the stone there,
unexpected chips from a prong bending in a way you don't anticipate or
contacting wrong are much less. For some shapes of stones, like emerald
cuts,
where seats in the prongs need to be flat planes, rather than what a setting
bur
cuts, you can define a precise angled seat with files and saws much more
easily
this way too, since you can get the angles just right without the stone and
it's
fragile edges being at risk during the bending of the tip. The prong tips
are
bent slightly too much, so as you tighten the prong, the last bit of the
stone
to fully contact the seat is the girdle itself, as the prong tip hits the
stone
first at it's end, not at the girdle. The tip then actually relaxes
slightly
upwards as you tighten the prong. the girdle is the most fragile, so having
the
prong contact first slightly up the crown facets is much safer, and insures
that
in fighting to get that tip all the down flush to the stone you don't break
the
stone, since this way, it starts out all the way down flush...

About the only real downside to this method is that because you have to
first
bend the prongs back at their base, you may need to clean up (rubber wheel,
etc)
some ripple or bending marks down on the side of the head. But this seems
more
than made up for in that you then don't have as much trouble cleaning up the
tips themselves, since you can get them mostly right before you insert the
stone.

Hope this helps.

Peter Rowe

*
Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com