Jewelry Designer of fine custom
art jewelry

Transferring Stones (Dopping)

Firstly, this is the way I do it. There are MANY other ways of doing it and amongst gem cutters, saying one method is better than the other is like arguing about religion or politics.
This is the method that works for me and I can't remember when last a stone popped off my dop.
I use a 5 minute epoxy to dop the stone onto the first dop. Since I come from South Africa, the glue of choice is Pratley White, but Devcon works just as well.

So there are my two dops and a post-it pad to mix the glue on and a toothpick (cheap and easy) and two syringes filled with glue. This I do so that I can dispense the glue easily and accurately.
The syringes that the (Devcon) glues come in are junk. As you see, Pratley is different colors, so seeing that it is mixed well is easy.

The syringe lets you dispense small amounts of glue and because it is accurate, the glue bonds very strongly.

Like this.

I am dopping two peridots, but not all the following pictures will have them. I culled this tutorial from pictures of various stones.

After the pavilion is finished I transfer.
So now I align the stones up properly. Unlike wax or cyanoacrylate, I have plenty of time.

Now comes the trick. After the epoxy has hardened, I use an oxygen/lpg torch, called the little torch. I heat the dop at the base with a hot flame. The heat races up the dop and hits the glue. Before it can cross the glue and into the stone, it separates, because 5 minute epoxies fail at about 100C.
Now I am holding the stone in a parallel jaw pliers if it is a square stone or a specially bent pair if it is round, tri etc. I am giving GENTLE pressure on the soldering pad, so that as soon the heat hits the glue the dop gives way.
I hold the stone firmly, not to hard so as to chip it. I also had a set of pliers that had nylon lined jaws but some one stole them. They are the best to use. However, is the stone is very fragile, like some Smithsonite I cut the other day, I hold the dops by hand.Works just as well...
One doesn't have to use a oxy/gas torch. One of those cigar gas lighters work just as well.

Here they are separated. I know this is an Afghan tourmaline. The peridots in the first pictures are long time finished :)

Here are the pliers I use for round stones.

And this is how I remove the stone after I have finished the crown if it is not too sensitive. Otherwise I turf it into some Attack, an epoxy solvent, or acetone for a day or so.