A Diamond is Forever
Tom Weishaar
1. Not long ago, two forlorn looking women entered our store. When approached by a sales associate, one of the women began to sob. This is not the typical beginning to a sale. We came to find out that the women were sisters and that their mother had just passed away. It was the mother’s death-bed wish that the sisters take her wedding ring, remove the diamonds and have matching rings made for each of them. The mother wanted her girls to remember her through the diamonds that had brought her joy through the years. The sisters met with the store’s designer and a simple ring was planned to honor their mother. I thought you might like to follow along as I fabricate these matching rings.
2. For those keeping track, the difficulty factor of this project is in line with the J.A.’s level three Certified Senior Bench Jeweler™.
I prefer to begin most projects with the top-center and work out from there. I begin by rolling out several inches of white gold stock into a length of flat wire that was 1mm by 3mm. This metal would be the basis for the diamond’s upper and lower gallery supports. After annealing, the flat wire was formed into two curves using a shank bender. Each curve would form the basis of the supports for one ring size 6 and another size 7.5.
3. The curved white gold stock was next cut into four blanks. The blanks of stock are to be stacked in order to form the upper and lower supports. This is not a place to scrimp on metal. Make sure the blanks are long enough to hold all of your stones. To help me lay out the positions for the diamonds I like to coat the top blank with a thin layer of red sticky-wax. Each stone is placed upside down, with only a slight gap between their girdles. The gap should be no more than the width of a sheet of paper.
4. Please notice that the curvature of the upper and lower supports has been adjusted so as to create a slight gap between the two blanks. This space, about 1mm at the center, will become a nice decorative feature in the final rings, helping to lighten the overall appearance of the rings. In this picture the stones’ positions are being carefully marked on each side of the upper blank. After marking, the blanks will be cleaned and the ends of the two supports will be tacked together using hard solder.
5. After soldering, the diamonds’ pilot holes can be carefully drilled through the upper and lower blanks. I like to drill pilot holes that are half the diameter of the stones. This size pilot will still offer enough structural support for the ring, but will reduce the amount of metal my setting bur will need to remove when cutting the seats.
6. In this picture I am cutting the diamonds’ seats into the top black. I chose setting burs that are exactly 90% of the diamond’s diameter. I use this size bur because I want the seat to be 10% under-size which will force the diamond’s girdle to set slightly above the upper support. If I cut the seat the exact same size as the diamond then the girdle would sit down on the support and the support might then be visible when viewed from the top.
A Diamond is Forever continued
