Gemstone not fitting? Try this!

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a yellow round cabochon on top. The cabochon is partially inside the openiong that's been carved and partially sticking up

Are the walls flat 1

Your gemstone is kind of fitting in the setting you’re carving. One side slides in but then the other side stays on top. Or your gemstone wobbles all over the place when you try it inside, so you’re not really sure about the fit.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a yellow round cabochon on top. The cabochon is partially inside the openiong that's been carved and partially sticking up

Check if the inside walls of your setting are flat. You use a ball burr to carve the inside of your setting and that’s always going to leave a slight curve. The girdle of your stone is flat and the slight curve of the inside walls can make the fit wobbly.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a round opening carved away. the walls on the inside of the opening are curving in towards the bottom

Straighten the inside walls of your setting with smaller and smaller ball burrs, carving tools, or a stanley knife. Pay special attention to the point where the inside of the setting wall and the seat meet. You want to remove the curve and turn it into a corner.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a round opening carved away. the walls on the inside of the opening flat and there's a definite distinction between it and the bottom

With flat inside walls the gemstone won’t slide around and stay in place.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a yellow round cabochon on top. The cabochon is fully inside the opening that's been carved in the wax

Is the seat too wide?

Your gemstone fits inside the setting, it’s just not dropping in low enough. Too much of the stone still sticks out over the top.

Close up of piece of blue wax with a yellow faceted stone inside. The girdle of the stone is still high over the wax

Check the size of the seat you carved. If the seat is too wide it catches the stone lower on the pavilion. You want the seat to be right below the girdle, very high on the pavilion.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a hole inside. the seat inside the hole is very wide

Carve away wax from the seat to make it slimmer

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a hole inside. the seat inside the hole is narrow

and the stone can drop down lower in the setting.

Close up of piece of blue wax with a yellow faceted stone inside. The girdle of the stone is inside the wax

What’s going on below the seat?

Your gemstone fits inside the setting, it’s just not dropping in low enough. The seat can’t possible become any slimmer and still the gemstone is sticking out over the top too much.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a square green stone inside. Girdle of the stone is visible

Check if there’s wax below the seat that is preventing the stone from dropping in. If the setting is too shallow, or if there’s too much wax still below the seat the stone can’t drop in more.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a square opening removed. Lots of wax still on the walls sticking out

Carve away wax below the seat

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a square opening removed. Walls are cleaner, more wax removed

and the stone can drop in lower.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a square green stone inside. Girdle of the stone is no longer visible

How do I check this?

If you’re not sure if the opening at the top surface of the wax just isn’t big enough yet, or if something else is going on, you can place your stone upside down in the setting.

Close up of hands holding a piece of blue wax with a square green stone upside down inside. The pavilion of the stone is in the air, the girdle is inside the wax

With the pavilion in the air, it can’t catch on wax lower in the setting. You're using the girdle of the gemstone to measure if the opening is wide enough for it. If it doesn’t fit you know you have to make the opening bigger first. If the girdle does fit you know the opening at the top surface is the correct size and there’s something else going on inside the setting that’s preventing the stone from dropping in. Now you can check the state of the walls, the seat, and below the seat.

This trick only works for symmetrical gemstones.

Is the wax sticky?

You formed soft wax around your stone to create a bezel and now your stone is stuck inside.

All soft waxes are slightly sticky straight out of the box. When you start working with them they become even stickier. Chances are that the size of your bezel is fine, your stone is just stuck to the wax. Before you start forming your bezel, give your stone a talcum powder coating.

Close up of hands holding a cabochon purple stone that's just been dipped in talcum powder. You can see the posder on the side of the stone

The talcum powder prevents the stone from sticking to the wax and you can remove it much easier. Reapply talcum powder when needed.

Close up of hands holding a cabochon purple stone with a layer odf talcum powder on the bottom visible. A bezel from blue wax wire fits around the stone

Is the wax too soft?

You formed your soft wax bezel with loads of talcum powder. You melted it closed. But when you remove the stone you completely bend the bezel out of shape and ruin it.

Soft wax becomes softer and easier to shape the longer you work with it. Add heat and it becomes even softer. Right after melting the wax is the softest and stickiest it’s ever been. Your bezel is fine it just needs a rest.

After melting your setting closed, put it down and let it rest for 10 minutes. Let the wax cool down and regain some of its inherent strength. After resting you can remove the stone and the setting will keep its shape. Give it a gentle squeeze and you can feel it's firmer again.

Are the walls flat 2

You made your soft wax bezel, gave it time to cool and strengthen. But the stone isn’t fitting as nicely anymore. It fits, but you have to give it a little shove to go in.

Check if the inside walls of the setting are still flat. It’s so easy with soft wax to slightly push the setting walls over the stone already. With the setting wall partially pushed over, the stone doesn’t fit anymore.

Close up of hands holding a pink stone with a blue wax wire bezel. A hook carving tool is gently pushing the walls outward

Use a carving tool on the inside of the setting walls to gently push them back up and away from the stone. Now your gemstone fits inside easily again.

Comment below and let me know if these tips were helpful!