Jewelry Tutorial - Decorative Crown Collet

This Hidi is the same as MAKING A STANDARD CROWN COLLET for the first part. This is because the first part of the instruction and methodology is the same, but I want each to be stand alone Hidi's.

In this day and age, it is very easy to buy pre-made collets for stones from a jewellery supplier. And there are many good jewellery suppliers that sell very good findings, as the collets, catches , posts, butterflies etc are collectively called in the trade.

In time past, before computers and the internet and online catalogues, findings were generally made in the workshop by the metal smiths themselves. This skill has definitely declined amongst most modern metal smiths, which is not a good thing. Knowing how to make a one-off collet for a special stone is a skill that stands anyone in good stead. And, for that matter, knowing how to make your own collets is always good, because sometimes an urgent job does not allow for the lead-in time that is required to order from a supply company. This is not to say that one should only make your own collets. There is no point to make a collet that is available in large quantities for a few dollars each. But sooner or later, in any metal smith's life, there will come a time that the skill demonstrated in this Hidi will be valuable.

 This Hidi is the first of a few that are going to concentrate on making collets of different shapes, designs and methods of manufacture.

I am going to start with what is arguably the most popular, and therefore, the most 'machine made' of the collets. The so called crown collet. I am using the six clawed version, but this Hidi can be extrapolated to four claw and eight claw versions very easily.

I assume that the reader is comfortable with standard soldering techniques, and has access  to a reasonable jewellery workshop that includes the melting and rolling and polishing techniques generally used in such a workshop.

We start with the basic strip of metal.

In this case, I start with a strip of 18kt gold about 10mm wide and 40mm long and 1mm thick. Much more than I am going to need, actually. I am going to make a collet for a stone more or less 10mm in diameter. When I say 1mm thick strip, that is more or less. If the collet is smaller the metal could go down to .5mm. But for stones of about 5 to 6 mm the optimum thickness of the metal strip would be .7mm. It is not to difficult to make a collet for a 3mm stone, actually. Smaller than that becomes too finicky and not worth it with respect to the 'visual effect'. A simpler collet can be used for smaller stones. Or, for that matter, it can be  purchased from one of the supply houses for a few cents..

I bend the strip of gold round, cut it to the right size, solder it and true it up on my baby triblet. ( a small version of a ring triblet )

Then I make it into a cone shaped tube in my coning block.

 The coning block I use is 17 degrees, which is generally the angle that most supply house collets are made in. There is also a 28 degree  coning block that can be used to make collets and tubes that allow large stones to be set lower.

I mark off and cut with my piercing saw a groove all around the cone. I will cut this off later, but for now it serves as a mark for the next step.

Then I mark six cut with my saw on the top. The circumference of a circle is six times the radius of that circle. If you don't know what that means, Google it. There are many explanations there.

Then I cut with my piercing saw down about halfway. I use a No. 3 blade. This is to guide the tapered barrel frazer more easily.( also known as a fisher bur,)

Like this.

These are the basic tools, really. From the left, a parallel sanding mandrel, then a tapered sanding mandrel, loaded with 220grit and 1200 grit wet or dry sandpaper. Then a barrel frazer, a barrette needle file, then slitting, oval  and three corner needle files.

With those tools mentioned above, I file the cone into this shape. This is the classic crown collet. If the parting line was not cut in the cone, it would be quite an acceptable collet as is. It is, in fact, in the four claw version, the common house sparrow of collets of the world.

Then I cut the bottom third off.

I have made some tubing, in this case 2mm in diameter. This technique is covered in my Making Tubing Hidi.  I have started six indentations with my tapered frazer.

I develop the grooves with a 2mm frazer to accept the tubing.

And then I file the grooves in this manner. The edges get  polished at this stage.

And a small length of tubing is soldered into place,

which is cut away with a piercing saw and another is soldered in place.

And a third is soldered into place.

The tubes are filed down and then trued up and sanded.

Meantime, back at the ranch, I also grooved and filed the bottom third of the cone to accept the now soldered in tubes of the top part

.

Checking to see that the whole contraption fits together neatly. I leave everything a little bigger than necessary, so that it easy to file down after soldering.

Both are smoothed out and pre-polished prior to soldering.

AHEM! I am using a collet from my other  Hidi, because I accidently deleted the original picture of this collet.. --------Sigh, --this is called a senior moment in polite terms....

Here is the unfinished collet after soldering. The crown holes still have to be neatened up and the inside finished off.

Polished.

I put the collet on a ruler with a tourmaline I cut in it to give an indication of the size.

A side view. So now you know!

This is the second of two Hidi's I am doing on crown collets. I have split them into two, otherwise they become to long and I become confused..........Here is the other Jewelry Tutorial on making a Crown Collet. You can also have a look at Making Tubing

If you have any questions or wish to be notified of any new tutorials that are posted, email me at hansmeevis.tutorials@gmail.com