In article ,
wrote:
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

This may be the one your looking for

From: Peter W. Rowe
Subject: Trick to Setting Stones In Stamped Bezels?
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 02:13:47 GMT
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 18:06:33 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Dale"
wrote:

I got some 14k stamped gold open-back oval bezels from Hoover & Strong, and
I took them to a someone who was going to show me how to set my calibrated
cabochons in them, and she was unable to do it. Whenever she tried to push
the bezel over the stone with jeweler's pliers, and also with prong setting
pliers, the metal would flex, so she never could get the stone to remain
seated, and was unable to burnish the bezel to get the metal to rest against
the stone. She tried annealing the metal, and also grinding to thin it out,
but nothing worked. Is there some trick to this, or was she just using the
wrong techniques?



Wrong techniques in two catagories.

First, with flexible settings like open backed bezels or any of a wide range
of
more delicate settings, it's often needed to support the work in some manner
to
keep it from flexing, or even being crushed, by the forces needed to set the
stones. The traditional material for this is orange flake shellac, which I
still prefer to most others. It melts easily enough with a low flame (take
care
not to burn it, holds the metal well, and when cool, stays nicely rigid. And
it's cheap compared to other stuff. More than a few folks, though, find it a
bit too brittle, and prefer setters cements that start with shellac, but then
add various fillers to make them tougher. There are a variety of formulations
that do this, some sold just as "setters cement", and others sold as lapidary
dop wax (the red works nicely) or other such. Commonly brown in color, or
red,
but I've also seen variations in an ochre yellow color. All will work for
you,
with the minor differences in melting point or hardness probably not being
significant for this use. When you're done, you melt the shellac again,
taking
care not to overheat your stone, and clean off excess in alcohol. Or, if you
like there are new thermoplastic materials out now that do the same sort of
thing, but with a bit less mess than shellac based products. Jett Sett is
one
such. white plastic beads that melt in very hot water to a goey consitancy,
like melted shellac, will also adhere somewhat to the metal, and when set,
forms
a rigid tough support for the metal during setting.

Second, for those low bezels, pliers are the wrong tool. You can use them
when
such bezels are securely soldered down to something, and then it's sometimes a
shortcut, but even then, pliers are not really the right way to set those
bezels. For the short, tapered, thick walled types, you use chasing punches
or
a hammer handpiece, and for the stamped ones with vertical, thin metal walls,
you use a burnisher or a bezel roller. Gentler than pliers. Pliers want to
push both sides of a bezel together at once, which is twice the stress needed
to
push just one side at a time. With a bezel roller or burnisher, you're
putting
a lot less force on the metal than with pliers. And in both cases, either
hammering with punches or a hammer handpiece (or in some cases, even just with
a
small hammer itself), or in the thin metal types you do with bezel rollers or
burnishers, the work will be a LOT easier when the bezel is properly
supported
in some sort of setting cement, shellac, or jett sett compound..

Peter

Added Note
Also, it may be important to mention that you need to be sure the bezels are
annealed. Most are supplied that way by manufacturers, but some are not. In
normal use, they get annealed during the assembly process, when one solders
them
onto the jewelry, but if that's not happening, then be sure to anneal the
things, or they may be too springy still from stamping.