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This is the
blank canvas. Now I want to make the ring a little more
interesting. I am going to file the corners off first.
Give it that faceted angular look.
I file this by eye. Not
difficult. The trick is to file it further than looks
balanced, because I am going to solder two plates on the
corners, thus raising the height of the corners again. As
you can see in the picture the ring does sort of have that
'military haircut' look.
The picture's a bit kak, but
the idea is clear. In the third arm, solder the plate first
on the one side, then on the other side. I drilled a hole so
as to allow for gas expansion. I am going to set a stone in
the ring so the hole does not matter. Anyway, a hole allows
for better solder joints.
Both plates filed on ready for
filing down.
Sanded down to 220 grit. Now I
am ready to make the bezel and solder it on.
The stone is a 3.13ct.
Nigerian tourmaline that I cut in the Wilf Ross'
design called "Cut Corner Rectangle." The strip of metal is
18kt. white gold. Why do I use 18kt gold on a 14ct setting
you ask? Firstly because is is MUCH softer than 14kt. white
gold. Secondly, because the cost in negligible. And thirdly
because 14kt white gold is the devils armpit material. Hard,
nasty, semi yellow junk-- I never work in 14ct white gold.
Then I bend a U- neat and
parallel. I put it upright and check that everything is 90
degrees.
So that it fits the stone like
this. The girdle of the stone must be about halfway across
the thickness of the metal. Everything MUST be straight and
neat.
Then I solder the 'U' on with
hard solder like this.
Then I do the other side..
(the stone has wax on it) Care must be taken that the stones
girdle is equal on all sides.
I sand the box down . The fit
must be good. The more accurately I work now, the easier the
stone will be to set later.
Then I file the wall of the
box at an angle to accept the stone. As you can see, I have
not done the corners yet. First I concentrate on getting the
sides nice and equal. If this bezel was already soldered
onto a ring, then I would use a tapered burr in my hanging
motor, and some flat gravers to achieve the same effect. But
it is MUCH easier to file the box before it is
soldered on.
Here I have filed the inner
corners away and the stone is settling in nicely.
Incidentally, when I work for extended periods of time with
an expensive stone on my bench, I spray it with white
lacquer spray paint. This protects the stone from micro
scratches. And if the white paint scratches off, I know I am
handling the stone to roughly. I remove the lacquer with
thinners.
Now the outer corners have
been filed away and the box is ready to be polished and
soldered onto the ring.
I pre-solder the bottom edges
of the box and then file the bulges of the solder flat. That
is why it looks as if the box is standing a bit proud on the
top surface of the ring. It is, in fact. Now I take care to
heat the ring ALL OVER equally, with lots of flux and a
strong-ish reducing flame. I also put the ring in my
third arm so that I can bring my torch all around the piece.
Bang! Soldered perfectly. Now
I set the stone, which is to be shown in a future tutorial.
Suffice to say that I drill a appropriately sized hole in
the top of the ring and once the stone is settled in nicely,
push the edges over.
Like this. Remember to follow the
Making a
mould of the above Panel Ring and the previous Hidi of
Making a Basic Panel Ring.
I hope you enjoyed this three part Hidi. As usual,
any comments can be sent to hansmeevis.tutorials@gmail.com |
