 Using
Gemstone Setting Pliers to Set Gemstones
 Our
WigJig Stone Setting
Pliers are shown at right. These pliers have one long jaw
with a smooth inner face and one short jaw with a groove carved
lengthwise in the face. In the picture at left, you can view the
groove in the shorter jaw of the pliers. This groove is used to
help hold one side of your setting, while the long jaw is used to bend
the opposite prong in the setting into its final position.
 In
setting any gemstone, you need to begin as we described in
page 15 with first cleaning out the notches
in the setting with a
file. For
those settings that do not have notches, you will need to use your
file to create
notches. The notches should be about 1/16" to 3/32" from the end
of each prong. The second step is to bend each prong in slightly
using your bent chain
nose pliers so that they will grip the gemstone.
 See
the picture below-right to see how the prongs need to be bent so that
they will tightly grip the gemstone once the two are pressed together.
Finally you are ready to push the setting down onto the gemstone.
 When
the gemstone is in the position shown at left, held relatively snugly by
the prongs of the setting, you are ready to begin using the gemstone
setting pliers. In the two pictures shown below, we show how you
would grip two different settings in the jaws of these pliers. In
these pictures you should be able to view that the setting is aligned on
one side with the length of a prong resting adjacent to the short jaw of
the pliers. On the opposite side of the setting, the long jaw is
aligned with the top of the opposite prong. By squeezing the jaws
of the pliers firmly, the pressure will cause the tip of the opposite
prong to be bent in toward the center of the gemstone. Doing this
on all 4 or 6 prongs of your setting, one at a time will cause the tips
of the prongs to be bent inward thereby griping the gemstone snugly.
(With snap fit type of findings you will need to squeeze very, very
gently or the setting may be damaged.)
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 For
larger gemstones you may find that even after bending all the prongs in
toward the center that the stone still isn't held as firmly as you would
like. In those cases the final technique to finish setting the
gemstone is the same technique that we used to tighten Tiffany style
rings. For this technique you use your bent chain nose pliers and
squeeze the two prongs on the same side toward one another very
slightly. Then you would squeeze the opposite two prongs toward
one another. If you were to number the prongs in a 4 prong setting
in a clockwise order you would start by squeezing prongs 1 and 2
together then you would squeeze prongs 3 and 4 together. To finish
this technique, you would then squeeze prongs 1 and 4 together and then
prongs 2 and 3, thereby returning all the prongs to their original,
symmetrical positions. Doing this will tighten the gemstone in the
setting.
Like every skill that must be learned. You will find that you get
better at doing this with practice.
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