The 90 degree might be to wide and thus remove to much of the prongs. Use 60 degree gravers and tilt them a little away from the stone holes.I've been trying both an onglette and a 90 degree v for the cutting around the stones. I see the onglette mostly in youtube stone setter videos, actually I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything else. For some reason I loathe cutting with the onglette but I'm giving it more of a go. I've also been trying the 90 degree v and I'd have to say I prefer the feel of using it and I have them well polished so the bright cuts actually look bright. Thankyou for the feedback Sinterklaas, I greatly appreciate it. Ok, so shared beads never actually get shared over three stones? It's hard to see in videos whether they are getting pushed straight down on to result in each bead covering three stones or if there is some pattern to the pushing the beads so that they are being pushed sideways to beads holding two stones at a time (pave shared prong setting). I'm not sure how to eliminate triangular posts to be beaded between stones in staggered setting like this (pic).
Hello Dani, Good job there, congratulations, I think I've seen that you use a Lindsay handpiece. Lowering the PSI will only give you more range on the pedal, but you can still make very deep cuts with a low PSI, the important thing is the length of the stroke. If you want to go slowly or you are cutting in soft metals use a short stroke, as short as you feel comfortable, in some areas I usually configure the stroke almost to the minimum to cut in steel, it depends on how slow I want to go and how intricate the engraving. To eliminate the background in very closed areas I use flat gravers of 0.15mm and 0.2mm thickness, 60° face and 20° heel, if it is buried it is because you must increase the size of the heel. In 24k gold the graver is buried as if it had no heel, a larger heel creates more resistance, but you must find the perfect size according to the size of the engraving you are making, because you can also damage the engraving with the back of the heel. You can also use a narrower graver, maybe a 105° to remove the metal that is closer to the contour cuts and then use the plane to remove the background with less risk of damage. You can also use a rotary motor with burs made by you for very small areas.I was fairly pleased with my 116 v graver work... but when I pulled out the flat to cut the background flat I was running into scrollwork with the belly of the graver and it really wanted to dive all the way to China and not just knock the tips off of where I'd gone to and fro in the background with the v. higher heel? different face angle? different pressure or piston or...??? what am I doing wrong when a graver just wants to dive? how do I not mess up my initial outlines when backgrounding? ta
There is no trick as far as I know, just a light handI've found it easier in this larger ring made of stainless to not dive to China with the flat and to not marr the scrolls. I really struggle in soft metals. are there any tricks? View attachment 53209
You don't need to sacrifice any, using a negative relief you get the same result without the graver losing its usefulness, it will even work very well with the carbide ones.You can also 'sacrifice' one or two (or more) gravers and grind out an area immediately behind face/heel. I use this a lot when voiding tiny areas to be enamelled (where deeper voiding is needed). Easy to do with round diamond burr - you can grind 'back' as far as you need to not risk running into your outlines. I leave about 1-2mm of original graver profile so there is some room to re-sharpen. HSS gravers seem to not break as often as carbide. Hope this helps.
I can agree there, they weren't over the stone far enough she fell out as I engraved the ring. inserted another and pushed them further over the stoneNo idea if you need to nickel plate stainless first.
The prongs on the saphire ring look like a good size. They are probably the size I would make them. Smaller would also mean weaker and they will also wear out faster. The 2 on the left look the best. Top right a bit to small. It seams it doesn't go over the stone very much. You want the beads to be atleas over the first crown facets.
Love the cat !