Jewelry Designer of fine custom
art jewelry

Making a six claw collet

This is a short tutorial on how to make a six claw traditional collet without any jig or plaster of Paris and wax. In this one the photo's were taken on my bench and are 'as is' :)  In the 'old days' I used to make collets only like this. Then along came the supply companies, and the art has much disappeared This, then, is also an indication of my age :).

First as always, you start off with annealed wire, about .7 to 1mm in diameter, depending on the stone size.

I cut three pieces about 30 to 40mm long and I mark the center with a divider.

Then I file on the mark I made with a 3 corner file nearly through. Never mind the swarf...

And I bend them so that the are exactly the same as the divider was when I marked the half of my wires. Remember: The circumference of a circle is six times the radius of that circle. Once I have all three of my wire bent equally, I solder each wire...

I put them so they are all equal and then--

solder them together. Notice that I have marked the "spider" with my divider more or less at the black dots. This is to get the exact bending mark, as the next picture will show. Now, one thing. The distance from the centre of the spider to the black spots is determined by two things.
The first is the size of the stone the collet is being made for, and the second is the height that the stone will be set. But as a rule of thumb, the marks will be about one and a half to two times the diameter of the stone. This becomes apparent in the next few pictures.

I take a parallel jaw pliers and half bend the wires on the 'black' spots that I marked with my dividers in the previous picture.

Then I bend them all the way with a set of flat nosed pliers. Now is the time to get then all nicely equal and parallel. So now you can see, if you exceed two times the diameter of the stone the collet will be more shallow, and thus will sit lower in the ring. This will all be determined by the design of the ring.

Once the wires are all nice and neat,they get soldered with hard solder.

And the top is cut off like this. With a front end cutter. Sawing is not recommended, because if the blade hooks, it will bend the claw out of line and then the collet is ruined.

The stone should fit in at about this heght.

Then I make a jump ring about the size in proportion to the stone as in the picture. I polish it. Then I cut with a setting burr (hart) a groove so that the jump ring "clicks" in. This is not easy at first, because you have to get the grooves level, otherwise your jump ring will not be level, and at the right height, because otherwise your stone will be to big or small for your collet. Also, unlike the picture I also polish the 'open' collet and remove the swarf. Then I click the jump ring in and solder it.

Like this. I will use a conical frazer to burr out the jump ring, so that the stone fits snugly.

To finish the bottom of the collet I use a sanding disk or file to cut away the original solder joint and then use a ball frazer to bur out the claws as shown. Care must be taken the the ball frazer goes not hook, because if it does, the claws  will be bent and the collet ruined. Unless, of course you like skew collets:)

A jump ring is made and soldered in as shown. Note: first the swarf must be removed. After soldering, the jump ring is re-drilled so that the hole in the center is neat. The reason I am not to fussed that the hole is not perfect, as in the picture, is because often the solder will run wrong and screw it up anyway. Best to fix it last.

This is then the collet, ready for soldering into the shank. This shank was the customers, as was the diamond.

The ring ready for setting.