When putting on a small brush on a mandrel, it helps to taper the end of the mandrel so the brush centers itself when you put it on.
This custom remount pretty much kept the same classic design as the original (not pictured) but the goal was to do a more lighter, feminine version in white gold. The micro prong set diamonds helped lightening up the feel of the ring from the original bulky 3 channel design. We also opened up the shoulders of the ring to make it more airy. We did a cool square shank and cast it in super white 14k gold alloy that does not need rhodium plating.
We refinish rings to like new condition all the time. But I always love refinishing an engagement ring right before the wedding day. It is rewarding to make it look it’s best for that special day.
This classic platinum ring required some prong work and needed to be totally repolished for the big day. Instead of sanding out the light scratches and small dings, I used a tungsten burnisher to move and manipulate the malleable metal back into the dents. Much less material is removed. And the best part, the surface becomes harder when you work the surface with the burnisher, which makes it more scratch resistant.
Refined
We have had positive feedback of our repair/custom shop visible from the showroom. I have great response regarding this blog. We have found that people are genuinely curious and interested in what happens at the jeweler’s bench.
After watching some videos on sharpening my goldsmithing skills, I thought how cool it would be to have a bench monitor for our customers. My Mantis bench microscope, that I love, has an awesome big brother that is outfitted with a webcam. That would be nice to have, however, it is $2500, so that is not happening any time soon. My solution: I took an old laptop and dedicated it to a good webcam and ran a wire through the wall to a monitor in the showroom. The WebCam is aimed towards my bench pin and covers a pretty good viewing area of where all the action takes place. When jewelry is brought back to me for inspection, the customer can see how I am poking and prodding, checking for loose stones. They can watch me, from a close up perspective, tightening their stones. I can even press record and document the entire inspection including audio.
side notes: I do not have a live feed of the microphone to the show room. My singing would surely drive away customers.
Also found it frustrating that the Logitech C920 webcam software does not support a full screen view. I found free third party software to fit the bill.
Here are a few of my favorite custom tanzanite rings that I made.
This bad boy started with a 12mm wide platinum band. I added two platinum “tree trunks” to support an 18k yellow gold trillion bezel that floats above the ring. I was always amazed how heavy this ring felt. Platinum is considerably more dense then gold.
This irregular shaped trillion tanzanite had awesome color. It screamed in this super white gold mounting.
Tanzanite also looks fantastic in yellow gold.
This is my first trap set pendant. I looked at a number of pieces from different manufacturers. There were various technics of setting, all with there pros and cons. I took what I thought was good from each and got to work. Since the outer ring of stones are holding the center diamond in it’s seat. I picked out stones with the same diameter AND depth. I measured to the hundredths of a millimeter. I needed to hit 1.00ct total weight. The six outer stones weighed 0.76ct so that left about a 1/4ct stone for the center. I laid them out and it seemed that this combination was going to be perfect.
I did most of the work in wax. I did recut the seats once it was in gold. I was surprised how low the center diamond was set in the mounting. I kept on burring deeper and deeper until the underbelly (pavilion) of the outer ring of diamonds rested on the crown facets of the center. (Trapping it in place). Luckily, I built up the prongs extra tall in the wax. It gave me the leverage to push the shared prongs over the diamonds with pliers rather then having to use a hammer hand piece which would have vibrated the stones like crazy when securing the stones. Then I simply trimmed and dressed the prongs to a triangle shape.
We made a rose gold wedding band to match the white gold engagement ring. I had done a post on the band. I did not post pictures of the set together.
I love being asked to find solutions for a wedding set. For hers, she wanted a bypass design. So the design was quite obvious. I matched the heart motif and kept a similar width and profile.
I cast it in two pieces so I could better finish the inside of the bypass.
It is nice to see yellow gold making a come back.
Even with wanting to keep a similar bypass look, his ring had many possible design variations. He chose the center to be a half round band.
I used tungsten burnished to work harden the ring. It hardens the surface and makes to more scratch resistant.
You can check my whole website dedicated to drum and guitar rings.
http://musicianrings.com
But here is how I made my last order:
I use a Wolf Wax attachment to turn a #35 foredom hand piece into a mini router. I first ream out the tube to the desired finger size and then shape the wax to a plain basic band.
By changing the large cylinder bur to a wheel bur, I milled the step of the “rim” of the hoop. I Flipped the wax over and repeat the cut.
I marked out 8 equal lines for the placement of the lugs and tension rods.
For this design, I carved the lugs in the wax. By doing the rims, shell and lugs in one piece, it dramatically cut down the labor of assembling individual parts in metal. (Which I have done on some drum multi colored gold versions.)
Here is the finished wax after texturing the shell with a 1.0 mm ball bur for the finish the customer custom ordered.
The wax model is sprewed on to a rubber base and a metal cylinder is placed over that.
A special plaster is poured into the flask. When the plaster hardens the rubber base is removed, exposing the ends of the wax sprew. The flask is placed in a kiln. As the temperature rises, the wax melts out, leaving a cavity of exactly what was carved.
The molten metal is “shot” into the flask with the aid of a centrifuge.
Here is a flask just after casting.
When you dunk the mold in water, the plaster breaks down.
Here is the rough casting with the sprew and “button”. You always need to carefully calculate how much metal you use to cast with. Too much, and molten metal would go flying out after overfilling the mold. Too little, and the ring is incomplete or plagued with porosity. (Small voids)
The ring is cut off of the button and goes through a process of sanding and polishing. The button can be used in the next casting along with the addition of more new metal.
Working.
I am working on the tension rods. Holes are drilled and wire is soldered in place.
The finished ring.
This series all began with my wedding band. And I have done the same three band motif in a new and different way each time. My ring (above) has a half carat princess cut diamond and is in 18k yellow and white golds.
Square top wedding band version with three princess cut diamonds.
Two tone soft round band with round brilliant cut diamonds.
Simplified to two bands. All 14k white with princess cut diamonds.
14k white gold, square top to go with the big square princess cut.
Non-wedding ring version using customer’s agate stone.
14k white gold always looks very striking with blue diamonds.
One of my favorite color stone, non-wedding rings was born from doing drawings for these rings.
Atlas Jewelers Bench Talk 