Gem Setting Course Day 6: Five-grain setting

Grain setting was the technique most often used in my work before when I don't have much knowledge about stone setting. Of course, the stone setting has been done by professional stone setters.

9ct yellow gold with black diamonds and sapphires, grain set - image credit to e.g.etal

I have been struggling to practice grain setting, and even more so with five-grain settings. I found that perfecting this technique requires more experience than many other setting styles. The first step is marking out the grain on a flat surface:

a) Flat surface: For small stones, mark 1mm apart for a tight fit; for larger stones, the gap between them can be up to 2 points (1.7mm). b) Curved surface: For small stones, mark 2mm apart for a tight fit. For 2.5mm stones, the gap between the layout is 2.6mm (2.5mm + 0.1mm).

Always start by drilling with approximately a 1mm bur, incrementally opening up to a 2.3mm diameter.

drill holes for 4 grain setting

Marking out and Cutting out process explained

Create the grains

The class focused on the process of 'cutting out.' Using onglette and flat gravers, we cut a thread and angled frame around the stones to neaten the appearance of the setting. This process primarily involves removing metal between the stones to create neat four-grain settings for each stone and one grain in between. Barrel burs, also known as cylinders or tapered cylinders, were used to remove and clean the metal. What chaos and confusion I experienced during this process! I had doubts about: 1) whether my gravers were properly sharpened to create a nice thread, 2) how to control the drilling and enlarging of holes with the flexi drive shaft, and 3) how to use the Hart bur to mark inside the holes for seating the stones.

After wasting the metal and creating the grains between stones

5 grain sets

Unfortunately, I couldn't complete this practice as it was a bit too complex to achieve in a week or so. I think I will need at least one intense month to finish this task. Therefore, the images shown above were all done by my instructor, Renee. I assume a couple of classmates who have been working as full-time jewellers for a while probably managed to complete this task.

However, I was excited to learn something new. Without attending the class, I know how my Thursday night would be after a week of part-time retail work at the supplies store: exhausted. But what a productive thing I am doing for my life and career!