HOW DIAMONDS ARE SET

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 27, 23 February 1912, Page 2

HOW DIAMONDS ARE SET

Few people outside the jewellery trade have any idea how the brilliants they buy and wear are fastened into their setting, and a great many retail jewellers who have sold jewellery for years are equally ignorant. The art of setting jewels is comparatively gimple, the skill of a setter depending upon his knowledge of the strength of the material and the delicate touch required, which can only be gained by years of practice.

There are only four distinct methods of setting a diamond, though mountings are made which involve two or more of these methods. The most common is the clamp or claw. The operator imbeds this mounting, whatever it may be, in warm shellac on the end of a stick (six inches of broom handle is generally used), leaving the ■ setting exposed. This cools and leaves the delicate pieces of jewellery firm in all parts. He then, with a thin file, files all the clamps, bringing them up to sharp points. Then, with a scraper or graver shaped like a chisel (all his cutting tools are miniature chisels of different shapes) he digs out a bearing or shoulder for the edge of the stone on the inside of each clamp. He now, with a pair of sharppointed pliers, bends the clamps inward or outward, as they happen to require, until the stone will just squeeze into tbe circle of clamps. Then the stone is pressed firmly down until the edge rests squarely on the bearing of each clamp. This leaves the end 6 of the clamps sticking up past the edge of the stone. The next step is to push all these ends over the edge and burnish them tight. A piece of soft steel about three Inches long Is used for this, filed to a small square end, and fitted in a round handle. When the clamps are all firm in their places, they are bright cut, as the term ib. The clamps are trimmed to a point with three cuts, two on the sides and one on the top. The setter cuts away from the stone, and must be careful not to dig, too deep into the gold, or he will push the whole clamp away from the stone ; then, to make a good job, the stone must come out and the clamp be bent forward again. Some who manufacture the finest goods do not believe ’in bright-cutt-ing clamps on rings, as the sharp edges left are very severe on gloves worn over them. A setter employed by these, firms merely sets the clamps to a point, and the polisher buffs it round on top, when the work gets the last finish.