Tips for Jewelers Who Do Repairs
from Alan Revere

A FILE-SAFE PLAN:

Most flat and square flies—both large hand files and small needle files—have cutting surfaces on all four sides and edges.  The sharp edges are great if you want to carve a 90 degree groove into a piece of metal, but then can be problematic for certain applications, such as finishing a bezel setting.  If you want to clean up the top of a setting, a file with sharp cutting surfaces and edges all around will put the stone in danger.  However, with a little effort, you can modify a file that will allow you to play it safe.

First, prepare a safe surface on the one side of a fine-cut (#4 or #6) square needle file.  (Note: You can also use the following steps to modify barrette needle files, which are great for finishing prongs.)  To do this, carefully lay one side of the file against the spinning wheel of a bench grinder and draw it across, removing the abrasive cuts on that side of the file.  Repeat until the cuts are completely removed.

After rough grinding, take the file to an oiled sharpening stone—the kind you use to sharpen gravers, drill bits, blades, etc.  Hold the file flat against the stone and rub it back and forth to smooth the new surface and remove marks left by grinding.  When the surface is smooth, knock the cuts off the edges on both sides of the newly cleaned surface.

With all remnants of the original cuts removed, use progressively finer grits of abrasive paper to bring the surface and adjacent edges to a polish.  Begin with 220 grit paper held against a flat surface.  Proceed to 320, 400 and 600 grit.  Finish up with 4/0 polishing paper.  The file should shine on one side.

And with that, you have a file that is “safe” for finishing bezels and prongs.  Keeping in mind that all stones can be damaged by abrasion, place the safe surface very lightly against the stone and file the setting to perfection.

This Tip is from “101 Bench Tips for Jewelers" written by Alan Revere and published by MJSA/AJM Press.

Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts http://www.revereacademy.com

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Handling Colored Stones
from Gemstone Cutter Wayne Emery

Jade

There are two distinct minerals referred to as jade. “Precious” jade, or jadeite comes in a wide range of colors including green, bluish green, greenish blue, orange to red to brown, lavender, shades of cream to yellow and a flat white called “chicken bone”. Mixed colors are common.

Nephrite, a separate mineral, usually occurs in whitish gray to shades of green, but the greens are more muted and less pure. Often, it is seen in a “spinach” color. It is available widely at very low prices.

While nephrite is widespread in its occurrence and exists by the millions of tons in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington all the way north to Alaska, jadeite is much rarer. The primary source of the much more prized jadeite is Burma. While much of this material is processed in China, there are no sources of fine jadeite in China, contrary to popular belief.

Although the colors of jadeite are often much better than the usual drab colors of nephrite, and the values thus much higher, for purposes of our discussion the material can be handled in the same way. Both nephrite jade and jadeite are at the very top of the toughness scale. While neither is as hard as diamond, or anywhere near it, they are much tougher than diamond. Their ability to resist chipping or breaking by percussive blows is unmatched in the mineral kingdom, good news for bench workers!

Jades are best protected from torch heat whenever possible and are generally unharmed by immersion in the ultrasonic or the steamer, but, again, the steamer should always be used with care if at all.

Pickling solutions present no problems for the jades.

You can contact Wayne Emery at wayne_emery@msn.com

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Q:When is it proper to solder, and when do I weld Platinum?

A:Soldering is usually required when you are working on a multi-metal piece, such as 18K and platinum combination.  The metal with the lowest melting point dictates the method used.  When installing minor components to platinum, such as findings, soldering is preferred.  Whenever you are sizing a ring and need to use solder, use a 1700 seamless solder or the high purity “plumb” solders for the task.  Lower temperature solders tend to show a seam

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