Unusual job on the bench today

Unusual job on the bench today

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ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Wednesday 24th July 2013
quotequote all
Since I put up the build pics of my wife's diamond half eternity ring a few people have asked me if I have any other similar items I'd like to share. Well, today was a different day so you can check this out if you want.

Background: A customer came to me about 3 years ago with an idea for an engagement ring. She had the stone and the ideas, we produced it. She's not your average customer, very different but utterly excellent in her spark and desire to enjoy life. You'll see what I mean below.

..................................

So, over the past few years she's brought in her own gold, which we melt, make something she wants and then melt the remains to leave her a bar for next time. This gold came from her mums passed down jewellery, and although not assayed its about 14ct.

In that time we have made her wedding bands, a cross for her husbands confirmation and various other little bits and bobs. Today I made her eternity ring as its coming up to her 1st year anniversary.

As you can see here I've made a rough, wishbone shaped ring to match the wedding band and engagement ring, which you'll see later. The dimensions needed before cleaning are 2.5mm wide and 1.8mm thick. You can see behind the rough ring shape the remains of her gold bar ready for her next design idea. The ring needs soldering at the top to join and shaping to fit against the wedding ring. It has already been turned to ensure its the right size.


Ring soldered, it just needs more shaping and then profiling and buffing to smooth the surface ready for stone setting and polishing. As you can see, the wedding ring is an unusual shape so you can start to build a picture of this ladys approach to life. More to come on that!


The ring has now been shaped to fit the wedding ring and has been been buffed down to a medium grade ready for stone setting. At this stage there is no need to buff it too finely, its going to get some stick before its ready for polishing.


The lady in question has a theme of orange and green running through her life. Her wedding was planned in these colours and I only ever see her in these colours. So, spooky she should choose two of the softest stones known to the jewellery trade. How I'll sweat over this one. Here we have 12 x 2.25mm clear and bright orange fire opals and 12 x 2.25mm good quality emeralds. I wont need them all but spare matching stones are very handy to have when the stones are so soft.


First five stones in. I've chosen to grain set the stones as its less heavy on the stones themselves. Just for a guide, it took me 3 breakages before I got the first fire opal in. They scratch and break so easily (even just picking them up in tweasers will mark them) I was sure I'd run out of stones before I'd finished the job, delaying it being ready for the customer. Luckily, that first couple of breakages allowed me to perfect the setting of these stones and I broke very few after.



Right, I've got 9 stones in and have a good few spares left over. I call the customer up for her to come in and try it on. This gives me an opportunity to see if i need to set any more and on what side of the hooked bit they are needed. The way the band lies means that the stones are not in even numbers on each side. When she came in we established we needed another emerald and fire opal on one side to make them reach below the 1/2 way point.




With the final stones set the ring gets a good polish, a clean and then the stones get checked for security. This is a tricky stage as any loose stones have to be tightened up by pressing a bit harder on the grains. By this point I've used 11 out of the 12 fire opals I had so to say I was praying they were all secure would be an understatement. Luckily only one emerald needed tightening so I wasn't too stressed as the day came to an end. Emeralds are also very soft but so long as they are not too badly flawed they will take a little bit of pressure where the fire opals would instantly fail. Also, here is the engagement ring. Not your average, but neither is the customer.






Hope you enjoyed that.

Eddie


Edited by ecain63 on Wednesday 24th July 21:52


ecain63 said:
Seeing as we are doing rings etc......

Recently made my wife an eternity ring for our 5th anniversary. Strictly speaking you're supposed to give an eternity ring at the 1st year anniversary or on the birth of the first child. Claire didn't want it that early.

I know its a bit of minor advertising but hopefully will be seen as harmless helpful info smile :

Started out with 3g of 6mm x 6mm Platinum bar:


Rolled down to 2.25mm x 2.25mm and then rolled again on one side to make 2.1mm wide x 2.40mm deep. The ring below is a silver wedding mock up, designed to fit against her engagement ring, made by Joe (father in law) in 2007 when Claire and I got married:


After the ends have been flattened by cutting and filing them off with a fine bladed hack saw the bar is turned by hand (very tough and metal needs to be softened regularly) and the ends solderd together with Platinum solder. The excess solder is filed away from the inside of the band and then made round by use of a soft hide-mallet:


To acheive the correct size and to get the slightly tapered profile the band is made about 4 sizes smaller than needed when finished. The base of the lower half of the band needs to be only 1.6mm thick and the top half at its thickest is 2.30mm thick. To get this tapered effect i use a lightwieght hammer to tap the platinum to the correct size, making it thinner at the base as needed. Every 1/2 size it gets bigger the ring needs to be heated to soften it. If you do not heat it the metal becomes hard and will eventually crack:


Now we have the correct size and profile the top of the band needs to have a semi-circular knotch cut into it to allow the band to sit against the engagement ring, in the same way as Claires current wedding band. A half-round file is used. LEFT is the new platinum band. MIDDLE is the silver sample and RIGHT is Claires actual wedding band:


Knotch cut in, ready to think about setting the diamonds:


Claire wanted the diamonds to stretch only half way around the band, like the shank of her engagement ring. Here i have roughly marked where they will be set:


12 diamonds selected but only 10 diamonds will be needed, 5 each side. They total 0.21ct according to the scales:


The first part of setting the stones is to mark where they will be set. After scoring a centre line around the ring with an adjustable scribe and then measuring the distance between stones with a caliper i drilled the pilot holes which will guide the drills and bores needed to make the holes for the diamonds:



Here you can see how the rings will lay once completed:


All pilot holes drilled, ready for some more drilling with shaped bores. Notice too how i have scored the edges of the ring to make a groove. This gives me a guide which i can work to when deciding the size of stone needed:


Close-up of pilot holes and edge of band


One hole has been drilled to the right size. Its a tight fit as you dont want gaps:


First 2 stones are set. They are held in by 'grains' of platinum which are formed by cutting away the metal around them. The grains are pressed over the edge of the stones, without breaking them:


5 Diamons down and 5 to go. Starting to look the part:


So, all the stones are in now. All that is needed is to clean it up a bit, polish it and then Rhodium plate it to give the ring a bright white finish. Claire will be pleased!:


The finished ariticle. Not bad for an afternoons work:







Eddie

Edited by ecain63 on Monday 3rd June 21:00


Edited by ecain63 on Monday 3rd June 21:02


Made this last year for a good friend of mine. Custom made rose gold mount for her own 1.20ct oval diamond.


They got married yesterday. Made this to matech:



(That'll do me). lol

Edited by ecain63 on Monday 3rd June 21:09[/footnote]
[footnote]Edited by ecain63 on Sunday 13th August 20:02

VinceFox

20,566 posts

171 months

Wednesday 24th July 2013
quotequote all
cool job to have, that's quite interesting stuff.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Wednesday 24th July 2013
quotequote all
NeMiSiS said:
Well done.


Show us more, a monthly best of will keep me going.

Cheers.
Lol. Maybe a "this month I've mainly been......" type thread.

Actually im just about to start my wife's anniversary present so might post that up when its done.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

FarQue

2,336 posts

197 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
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Yep - interesting post. Thanks.

longshot

3,286 posts

197 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
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Thanks for posting that.
It was a very interesting read.

Your job must be great fun and very satisfying making people happy.

Oelholm

321 posts

184 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
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What stone is the clear one?

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
quotequote all
Square one in the engagement ring? Thats a diamond. A hybrid cut somewhere between a princess cut and an asher cut. Its unusual in the flesh.

westberks

926 posts

134 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
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showed my wife the last thread and expected her to be putting in orders within days; she seems to be more focused on buying clothes though at the moment (if it's not one thing it the other!)

will forward this one on to her; and then get a bking for the above statement nono

she must have a ton of stuff that could be melted down for recycling.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
quotequote all
ecain63 said:
NeMiSiS said:
Well done.


Show us more, a monthly best of will keep me going.

Cheers.
Lol. Maybe a "this month I've mainly been......" type thread.

Actually im just about to start my wife's anniversary present so might post that up when its done.

Thanks for the kind words guys.
This is the wifes anniversary arrangement, due to be made next month when i get a day to myself. 9mm x 9mm 3.48ct cushion cut tanzanite and 2 x 4.5mm trillion cut diamonds. They will be set in a platinum mount which i will hand make from scratch, as per.

Vvroom

1,170 posts

189 months

Thursday 25th July 2013
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^ great stuff. I always enjoy these threads of yours.

Most of us sit at desks all day hitting buttons on a PC, whereas you can see the fruits of your labour appearing before you- must be very satisfying.




ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
As its my anniversary on Sunday i thought i'd better get on with finishing that ring for the wife.

Custom built mount in Platinum. Usual processes but as the centre stone is a cushion cut its a very 'trial and error' build. Luckily it went without too much issue:



Claire has really small fingers (H3/4) so once the setting is built its time for sizing down:





After the sizing, double checking that the setting hasnt moved too much by laying the stone in gently. Little adjustments sort any movements out:



Bit of strengthening to be on the safe side:


Test fit diamonds and split claws for setting of Tanzanite:


Both diamonds set:


Tanzanite set and ready for polishing:




All done and ready for Claire:


Happy wife!


More next month im sure.

Eddie

Edited by ecain63 on Wednesday 7th August 20:34

VinceFox

20,566 posts

171 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
fascinating stuff, don't think i'd have steady enough hands for it.


longshot

3,286 posts

197 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
Good stuff.

What are the diamonds set in?

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
longshot said:
Good stuff.

What are the diamonds set in?
How do you mean?

They are set in 3 claw tension settings. Basically a single larger claw on the shoulder and then 2 x smaller claws on the back of the tanzanite setting keeping them held in place. Normally not a setting id recommend to the masses but as my wife's finger size is known, and im going to be doing all the maintenance I have no issue with this type of setting. All set in platinum.

longshot

3,286 posts

197 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
Now you mention the 3 claws I can see them but before I saw them I couldn't figure out what was holding them in place.

Vvroom

1,170 posts

189 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
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Great work, as ever.

Interesting to see the process.

Haggleburyfinius

6,593 posts

185 months

Thursday 8th August 2013
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Awesome posts. Always happy to see more of this stuff OP.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 8th August 2013
quotequote all
Thanks guys. More to come for sure.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 29th August 2013
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Well its been a fairly mundane month. The work load has been mainly ring sizings, chain repairs and claw retipping. Of the interesting stuff:

Rebuilding a diamond tennis bracelet that was worn to death. Roughly 16ct of diamonds:

In bits and cleaned up.


New loops on one end of each link:


New pins on the other:


And hey presto:



Servicing and refurbishing some nice clockwork:


Scratchbuilt from customers sketch. Silver and Opal ring:


Hand made diamond pendant as an anniversary gift to match a customers bracelett:



More next month.

Eddie

Gravy

2,067 posts

233 months

Thursday 29th August 2013
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I've just found that a fascinating read, thanks for taking the time to post up the photos and explain the process!