Embossing stretches metal by hammering from the inside. When the metal is hammered into a cavity, it’s called blocking – an alternate embossing method. Freeform embossing can also be done with a sandbag.

Planishing smooths the metal against a stake by overlapping the hammer blows. This stretching technique also forms the metal to the shape of the underlying stake. With practice, a morrorlike surface can be achieved.

For all forging, the size of the hammer as well as the corresponding stake will be dictated by the size of the work.

RAISING HAMMERS

(Photo 1) Wideraising hammers can be used to raise sheet metal into a bowl against a wooden or metal stake. They are also useful in cylinder forms for raising metal into a concave shape. Subtle planishing of concave shapes is possible with the narrow, curved faces of this type of hammer. Here the wide raising hammer is used to form a tube into a concave shape on a concave stake.

(Photo2) The tighter curves on the faces of a narrow raising hammer allow the raising of small sylinders and concave shapes. The thinner head allows this kind of hammer to fit into tighter curves for both raising and planishing. It’s also useful for fuorging and texturing. Here, the narrow raising hammer is used to raise in (thicken the metal in) the neck of a small sterling bottle.

A short narrow raising hammer can subsititure for the narrow raising hammer when a smaler striking head and a lighter tough is desired. Likewise, a short, wide raising hammer has a profile which makes it a more subtle substiture when a lighter hammer is desired.

EMBOSSING HAMMERS

(Photo 3) Small embossing hammers are used to form small raised areas by hammering from the inside in preparation for chasing or general shaping. A very fine dimpled texture with infinite variations can be produced depending on the strength of the blow. The small end of the embossing hammer can be used to texture surfacees, both flat and curved.

(Photo 4) Larger embossing hammers are used to dome metal from the inside. Metal is stretched from the inside as it is supported on a sandbag or a depression carved in wood. Doming a piece of metal before raising makes ite easier to control because the shape becomes rigid. This type of hammer also leaves a very interesting dimpled texture on flat or slightly domed metal if the mannering is done on the outside of a form while supported against a stake. The embossing can be used to stretch a small bottle from the inside.

A more rounded narrow raising or embossing hammer can emboss narrow raising or embossing hammer can emboss narrow pod or oblong shapes, like a spiculum form. Smoother overlapping marks are easier on long thin shapes tthan with a round embossing hammer.

Embossing hammers with wider, longer profiles are ideal for blocking bowls and broader width strips into concave shapes. As with all embossing hammers, this type of hammer is intended to stretch the metal from the inside.

PLANISHING HAMMERS

(Photo 5) The planishing hammer is for smoothing metal and is typically the most used hammer. The round head is used if the metal being worked has hammer markds from a previous round of raising that need to be smoothed out. The flat head of the hammer will also refine the markds made by the round head for a nearly smooth finish. This hammer is also used to size rings and form bezels. It’s a good general forming hammer when used with mandrels and stakes. Here, the round head is used to shape a hollow donut form from a flat tube.

(Photo 6) Smoothing and squaring the corners of a band ring can be accomplished with the flat side of the planishing hammer.

(Photo 7) Asingle ended planishing hammer with inserts has a plastic head that can be removed with a hex key. The flat plasic head forms metal while leaving it smooth. The metal head is slightly domedto make it easier to strike flat or slightly dome metal. I designed this hammer primarily for the bench jeweler who sizes rings and only wnats one hammer. Here, the plastic head will move the metal with out leaving marks.

Double insert hammers have interchangeable plastic heads of carious shapes that work the metal without leaving marks. The wide range of head shapes duplicate metal planishing, embossing, and raising hammers, and are useful for forming metal without stretching it. The hammer head is heavy enough to move metal with assurance.

TEXTURING HAMMERS

(Photo 8 ) Sharp texturing / raisig hammers are primarily for rings or other metal surfaces where very detailed hammered textures are needed. This type of hammer can also be used to make extremely tight curves when raising portions of jewelry. Here, the sharp edge of the hammer is used to form the texture on a band ring. A shorter, smaller version can be used on wire or other very small surcases. A texture that simulates raw silk is produced with a planishing hammer that has been randomly ground on the heads. It’s similar to a texture that could be rolled onto flat metal in a rolling mill. This type of hammering makes it possible to produce the texture on dimensional shapes.

MALLETS

Plastic head mallets are used to flaten and shape metal without leaving marks.

This particular Sanora Sunrise was new to me. Because of having much success lately with different Chrysocolla’s, I knew that I wanted to give this a whirl. My only first concern was because the seller had so much of it for sale, that there may be a chance it was blast mined. When people blast minerals from deposits, the end result is usually badly fractured material.

With this in mind thought it best to start with a smaller piece to see how it turned out. There were many choices. Some consisted mostly of Azurite, others mostly Cuprite, and then I still am not sure what the black mineral is. There were also many with a combination of the three. That was my choice for the first piece.

There are some metallic veins as well. A little hard to see in these pictures, but very interesting looking on the finished cabs.

I cut some preforms with just the Azurite, some with just the Cuprite, and others had a combination of all three minerals. I had no problems with undercutting.

After sharing how much I enjoyed cabbing this Sanora Sunrise Chrysocolla on the forum, other members became interested and have since bought some and seem to be excited about it as well.

Here are a few more examples. As usual, if you enjoy the mineral as much as I am, feel free to contact me for details on having me cut and shape cabochons for you from this mineral.

Thanks for checking out my blog and reading this post. If you enjoy this type of lapidary / gemstone blog, be sure to subscribe this blogs feed !

Fine silver bezel wire. Wrap a strip of fine silver bezel wire around the base of a cabochon. Test fit and adjust the bezel over your cabochon on a flat surface. There shouldn’t be any gaps but the stone should slide in and out of the bezel easily. When you have a good fit, mark the spot where the wire overlaps. Cut it flush (err on the side of too long vs. too short) and file the ends, if necessary, to create a tight seam when the ends are butted together. Check the fit again before sealing.

Method 1: Embed the bezel into the clay and seal the joint neatly with paste clay. (Keep most of the paste on the outside of the joint so you don’t change the fit of the bezel.) Let the clay dry, fill any gaps, dry and fire.

Method 2: Seal the joint of the bezel with paste clay or, better yet, Art Clay Oil Paste. When dry, fire the bezel separately, file the seam smooth and embed in “raw” clay as above.

Tips:

1) The bezel wire must be wide enough to hold the stone in place securely after burnishing, plus 1mm to embed in the clay.

2) Scuff/sand the area of the bezel that will come in contact with the metal clay to give it some “tooth.”

3) With a fine-tipped marker, draw a guide line scant 1mm away from the lower edge of the bezel wire to help you embed the bezel in the clay to an even depth.

Paper-type or sheet metal clay bezels for cabochons. Beautiful custom bezels can be created with paper-type (sheet) metal clay to accommodate cabochons of any size and shape. This technique was pioneered by metal clay artist Jennifer Kahn. Her excellent chapter in the superb book “PMC Technic” (see “Books About Setting Gemstones In Metal Clay,” below) explains in detail how to size the bezel setting so that it fits correctly after firing and offers some variations.

Embedded silver bezel cup settings for calibrated cabochons. For calibrated cabochon stones, you can embed either 1) fine silver bezel cups or 2) sterling silver bezel cups that have been “depletion gilded” (heated and pickled repeatedly to bring the oxides to the surface and remove them, leaving a layer of fine silver on the surface). The settings must be embedded securely into the clay in such a way that the clay can shrink-lock them into place. For depletion gilding sterling silver findings, you can use a traditional pickling product like Sparex, or Silver-Prep from Cool Tools which is supposed to be safer.

For myself it became readily obvious just how competitive jewelry and gemstone internet sales are. To simply sell jewelry, and or gemstones can result in being lost in the grand and vast world of cyberspace. The internet is plagued with never ending numbers of gemstone and jewelry sales galaxies.

It was suggested to “pick a specialized niche” within these. I decided as a gemstone site, to develop my niche specific to flat, and beveled gemstones that were specific as well within an associated jewelry niche that revolved around designers who had a particular need for gemstones that are designed for bezel settings. Everything I did and still do revolves around anything and everything related to gemstones specific to bezel settings. Everything from all my various sites meta descriptions, meta tags, key words and the like.

Why am I rambling on a bit about this? Because I would like to share a little bit about what exactly I have to offer jewelry designers and why a designer might truly consider to start to purchase from me and like so many others, become a valuable and regular customer.

I shared in a previous blog posting the advantages for a gemstone jewelry designer to develop a relationship with a specific lapidary shop. This is so true.

Today, I feel really comfortable knowing that I truly do offer some really interesting, unique and unusual gemstone cabochons specific to bezel type gemstone settings, and have built a nice little shop equipped to fill most any gemstone jewelry designers requests.

If your a jewelry designer who creates a lot of bezel type jewelry, you will really enjoy shopping my store. Just as important is for designers to feel totally comfortable in contacting me for special requests. When I designer sees there is an option to just buying what is offered to them and realizes that they can create a piece of jewelry around a particular mineral type and gemstone design it literally opens up a whole new world of designing possibilities.

It is exciting to see gemstone jewelry designers creative juices begin to flow when they start to design their own gemstones. I especially enjoy cutting and shaping matching and or multiple gemstone sets for a designers unique jewelry ideas. Here are just a few examples of what is possible. The possibilities are endless. Gemstone necklace and bracelet sets, mix and match minerals, beautiful matched sets, and any number of other possibilities. They are endless and fun too !

Presently my store is running a significant discount sale. I do it twice a year. My prices are already extremely reasonable, so to mark everything down an additional 20% is huge, and everyone has been on board.

Lots of customers also frequent the Community Forum too. It has grown over the last year. I truly feel that we have a truly interesting, unique and extremely knowledgeable group. It gets really fun when new members join up who are just getting started. I love it !

Well, I have been rambling on and on now…… Just another blog entry…

Hey, I did create yet another Squidoo Community Lens yesterday. Still a little new and rough around the edges. Another example of building on my little cyberspace gemstone bezel niche, as it is called.. “Gemstones Designed For Bezel and Metal Clay Jewelry Design”.

I really like Squidoo.

Well, I guess have created enough outbound links within this blog post. Hopefully a few jewelry designers who use bezel techniques with either silver backing or metal clay have stopped by and read through this post. If thats you, then thanks for hanging in there while I rambled on.

Hope you took a minute to check out the store, my new Squidoo lens and maybe even bookmarked the Community Forum !

If you really enjoyed then maybe subscribe to this blogs feed.

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Initially I was very disappointed because for the life of me, I could not get a polished finish.

With this chatoyant type Malachite, you have to slice the piece of rough a certain direction to fully take advantage of the chatoyant effect. Even more so with a Feather type chatoyant Malachite because if sliced improperly, the majority of feathering can be lost.

After much discussion on our forum, this ended up sitting on the bench for about four months. Part of the problem was the amount of copper within this. Finally, I sent some off to one of our forum members (Seth) who posted his success with completing a beautiful cab from what I sent him. My interest was sparked again and dove in to give it a try once more!

I thought might share the process from beginning to end just for fun. Visitors have commented how they enjoy seeing the process from the original piece of rough right up through the finished cabochon. I enjoy showing it too!

This first image is the rough as I received it. Before I even cut into it I was sure this was going to be something special.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a way to cut this so as to get the best feathering effect within the finished cabochon. Because of that I had to make a mold. Poured plaster of paris in it and then positioned the Malachite rough on it’s side so that once the plaster dried I could then cut this in the direction I wanted too. Otherwise there would have been no way to either hold it by hand or even begin to think about clamping this fragile mineral down in the slab saw.

The dark areas are copper. It was not long before that became a real problem for me in regards to polishing. As I shared on forum, for the life of me, I could not get a polish. the copper continued to smear as I tried to polish with tin oxide polish on a leather type polishing pad.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first attempt prior to sending some off to Seth from the forum.

Ok, so on to my recent successes !

First off, the oxide polishes were not the way to go. Seth mentioned his success came from the use of diamond abrasives. I believe he used some diamond paste as well. Since I was not set up with diamond, I have since made a few special wheels with a very soft leather that I can now use diamond pastes on. They are a small 4″ diameter, and simply placed them on a spare polishing unit.

Then…… the real success for me came when I set up a unit with a cotton buffing wheel. Mirkaba (Bob) from the forum had mentioned that he had some great successes with Zam.

Zam gemstone polish is used to polish soft materials, such as sapphire and gold (the softest of all metals).

This is when the shine really started to pop. Since this success with using Zam, I have began working again with this and other types of Malachite.

Here are a few pics showing my cabbing and polishing successes of this absolutely beautiful Chatoyant Feather type Malachite.

These, like most all my cabochons are bezel setting ready. These pictures were taken prior to adding the beveling for a bezel setting of which I have since added.

If you would like to see more details on these particular gemstones, you can check them out by going to this link.

As always your welcome to contact me about pricing details for special cut and shaped gemstone requests.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading about this Malachite.