Setting stones in steel

Let's just say Tai and I have a difference of opinion about folk art and leave it at that.
 
On Stacy's advice I ordered a bunch of 6mm red garnets.

I looked at a lot of web sites for some appropriate silver tubing. The largest pieces I could find had an inner diamater of about 5.5mm. I was looking for 6.0. The pieces that were almost wide enough ended up being about $80 after shipping.

So I went back and looked for copper tubing. It was available in fewer sizes, and had much thicker walls.

Long story short, nothing was matching up closely enough to make it clear which tubing was going to work.

So I expanded my search net, starting on Rio Grande. I found that they had sterling silver cups of exactly the right size in 10-packs for about $8 (plus shipping). These have 1.7mm side walls with serrated edge. My thought now is to solder the cups into the holes, press fit the stones and braise the edges down (perhaps removing the serration in the process). So I placed the order for one 10-pack.

I've held off changing the holes on the guard until such time as the supplies arrive and I can verify the sizes are what I expect them to be.

Meanwhile, I sand... just to keep my hands busy.

- Greg
 
Latest pic. On the first one I finally drilled through after noticing the holes were already too large for the cups that are coming. The newer one is still undrilled in any way, but has been smoothed out along the main body.

Guard7.JPG


P.S. Forgot to mention, the holes in the first one are .25" and I ordered the matching size of silver tubing from Rio Grande. I'm back on track to follow Stacy's advice.
 
Last edited:
That is what I meant, of course. Anyway, as you can see, I'm back to your original idea.
 
The silver tubing arrived today. I've annealed it, cut a piece to size and inserted it. Now I'm waiting for the garnets and sapphires to arrive.
 
Short version of the story is I abandoned the idea. One of the two guards got used in the KITH knife, the other (the one I drilled through and placed silver tubes into) got relegated to the drawer of shame. I may make another attempt some day, but not with that guard, and likely not with the silver tube I bought from Rio Grande.

Part of the problem is that the silver tubes I could locate had very small inner diameters, severely limiting the stone size I could use. Attempts to stretch the tubes using nothing more sophisticated than a MAPP torch and round punches failed. At the end I just figured it was a problem to solve another day... when I had stones I really wanted to set (not just a science project).

Ironically, since then I found the cabochons I really wanted to set originally... and have since misplaced them again.

- Greg
 
Always work silver cold. Annealing silver is done by heating to a dull glow and quenching in water or pickle (sodium bisulfate) Never get anything containing iron into pickle that you plan to put silver in as the iron will cause any dissolved copper to plate out onto everything

-Page
 
sunshadow said:
Always work silver cold.-Page
Click to expand...

Wrong.

You can hot forge silver. However, the more copper in it, the lower the melting point, so you have to watch your heats. Fine silver can be forged at a dull orange heat. At any rate, no matter what the specific alloy is, if it's sweating don't hit it, it's too hot. Also, hot working the silver really only makes sense on large thick stock. For small jewelry sized parts cold working is better suited.
 
So next time you are forging down a 3 inch diameter fine silver round bar to a 1/4 by 1 1/2 flat try forging at a dull orange heat, other than that, ignore what Tai just said and work it cold, annealing frequently and you will be amazed at what you can make silver do.

-Page
 
If say you were going to forge a full sized diner spoon from 3/8 inch square silver stock,… definitely do the majority of it hot. It's more efficient that way and if done right, less stress to the silver and less likely to crack. When it starts to get thin, you can work it at a black heat to save some more time. Do as much hot as you can.

Cold work it when you want to work harden it or if it's too small for hot working.
 
Page, I don't see your point. 20 gage IS thin no matter how much hiegth/debth there is to the repousse,... which is usually done in a pitch pot and can't be hot anyway. It's thin and probably done in pitch.

You said, "Always work silver cold.",... which is just flat out wrong.

Nice pendant though. :)
 
Tai Goo said:
Page, I don't see your point. 20 gage IS thin no matter how much hiegth/debth there is to the repousse,... which is usually done in a pitch pot and can't be hot anyway. It's thin and probably done in pitch.

You said, "Always work silver cold.",... which is just flat out wrong.

Nice pendant though. :)
Click to expand...

You won't see my point no matter how well laid out or backed up with 27 years professional silver jewelry experience, so no point arguing.

-Page
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top