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Deciding between hand-forged and CAD

alene

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I've been thinking about resetting my solitaire into something a bit more intricate at some point down the line. But now that my solitaire looks like it would need major repairs, the reset is probably going to happen sooner than I expected. So now I'm trying to figure out where to go for a reset. I've read all the threads I could find on the advantages on hand-forged rings. I do appreciate that they're more delicate, better polished and show less metal between the stones but I'm still not quite sure if this is the way to go, thus some additional questions. Budget-wise, I can probably go for hand-made if it really makes a difference. So here are some things I'm still not clear about:

-How much say to you have in the design process? With CAD, I understand you can make changes until you're happy with the images before the ring is cast. What about with hand-forged rings? Do you get detailed drawings? Can you continue collaborating with the designer until you're satisfied with what you see? Or is this generally more of a hands-off process in general? Related to this, is it better to go with hand-forged only if you see a specific design on their site that you want replicated, perhaps with minor tweaks? Also, if I want the ring to match my wedding band in thickness/height, is it something that is more easily accomplished through CAD or not necessarily?

- Are imprefections more likely in hand-forged settings? In extreme close-ups I've seen here it almost always looks like some small details are not quite perfect. The prongs in many hand-made rings I've seen here are not exactly angled exactly the same way, the stones in the halo are ever so slightly uneven. Is it the tradeoff that you just have to accept with hand-forged items or is it just that there aren't too many extreme closeups of CAD rings to compare?

-Durability - I understand that hand-forged rings in theory are supposed to be stronger and more durable but I've also seen complaints about poor quality of hand-made rings. I've seen a review of LM where the person mentions not only pave stones falling out but the head of the ring completely falling off within a couple of years! Since the parts of the ring are made separately and then soldered together, is it more likely to happen than in a cast piece?

I'm sorry for the novel but would really appreciate feedback on this!
 

distracts

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This is not a particularly helpful answer... but it all depends on the skill of the jeweler making it, the specific design, and their experience with that specific design (or the design elements, at any rate). I would figure out what style of ring you want, then figure out who does it best, no matter the method of production.
 

slg47

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what style of setting do you want?
 

alene

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Yeah, good point about the style. Ok, I *think* I want a very delicate halo but I don't want a super thin, diamond incrusted shank that seems to be so popular now. I want some pave used more as accents rather than completely covering the ring all over. I want an interesting gallery view but I'm not exactly sure what that means. I really like many aspects of this Tacori design (very small halo, interesting details) but not enough to go with this exact setting: http://www.tacori.com/Engagement-Rings/2639RD65#/2639RD65
Also, I really need a ring that complements my wedding band (attached) and matches it in style somewhat without looking too matchy. So with this in mind, what are your thoughts on hand-forged vs cast. And yes, I'd go with someone highly recommended here, so assuming a very high level of skill for either. Thanks!

nbandonhand1.JPG
 

CharmyPoo

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Your wedding band is rather modern and the micropave halos are vintage like. I find that they look more modern if you forego pave on the band and leave it only to the halo/gallery. Another alternative is to go with a bezel and a shank that has diamonds like your band.

A halo can be well done both hand made methods and cad/cast methods especially with the PS vendors. I guess it depends on how picky you are with pave - if you don't like a lot of metal between melees and like more delicate pieces - handmade/hand forged is the way to go. If you don't want it super delicate and don't mind a bit more metal, CAD/CAST is a great alternative especially at the lower price point.
 

NE Jewels

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Hi Alene,

Lots of confusion on this issue. A lot of the blame falls on the trade for this confusion.

We have to separate the terms hand-forged and hand-made from pave. Hand-forged, hand-made are all terms that usually, but not necessarily refer to the base metal work of the ring and don't really describe the pave.
Beautiful pave can be done on a cast ring and horrible pave can be done on a hand-made ring and vice versa. So, you see the metal work (the assembling) of the ring has nothing to do with pave.

There is a type of pave called "pre-cast pave" where the holes and beads for the pave are pre-made on the wax and then cast. The ring comes pre-made with all the holes, beads etc. to accept mele, with very little work involved. This is the most inexpensive and lowest quality pave that can be done. This is for price-point targeted jewelry.
The nicest way of doing pave is to cast a ring without any pre-drilled holes or beading and then the pave craftsmen drills the holes and carves out the beading for the pave. This can be called hand-made pave, although I haven't really heard it used. The quality of the pave will depend on the skill of the craftsmen.

Basically beautiful pave can be done on a cast piece where very little metal will show between the stones.

Even CAD\Cam jewels have a human element. Robots don't build the ring but a person sits down and cleans the casting. He might have to add a few other parts to the casting, like a head or prongs. If the casting is cleaned too much on one side, it will be crooked. So even a CAD\Cam piece can have symmetry issues. A hand-made ring doesn't really need this heavy cleaning. Not all cast pieces are CAD\Cam, the majority of the industry still uses hand carved waxes which would have a higher likelihood of being slightly off in symmetry. Usually a craftsman capable of doing hand-forged work will be at a skill level that making crooked rings would rarely be an issue. It's like saying Dale Earnhart Jr. can't take turns correctly on the streets. Good luck on your search.

Cheers
 

alene

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Thanks for your post, NE Jewels, very interesting! So does it mean that a cast ring can have pave just as flawless as a hand-forged one if executed with the same skill? The hand-forged rings I've seen here do seem to show less metal between the stones, is it simply because the people doing hand-forged work are also more skilled in making pave than those producing cast rings?

Also, I'd really love to hear more about the design process with hand-forged rings if anyone could share their thoughts on this. I'm wondering if there's a greater chance of miscommunication and getting the final product that is different from what you had in mind since there are no CAD images to see exactly what the ring will look like.
 

CharmyPoo

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The most popular vendors are:

[Hand Forged] Victor Canera - Out of all the popular vendors, he is the only one that is proven to do 100% hand forging of both the metal and hand set the pave. Victor do not use wax moulds.

[Hand Made] Leon / Steven - It is believed that they do a combination of hand forging and hand made. They may use hand carved moulds to cast some pieces and hand set the pave. This is an area that has not been proven but rumors have it that they do cast and hand set pave. Regardless, the net result is that they have some amazing pave done. On top of that, I would say that the flow of their metal work is by far the best.

[CAD/CAST] ERD / BGD / WF - They are vendors who utilize CAD to create a cast that includes holes for pave. You will see that their work has more metal between the melee. There work is still very nice.

My advice is to look at samples of rings you like from each of these vendors. Pick the one that looks best to your eye. None of them are perfect in every dimension.
 

denverappraiser

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distracts|1326674550|3103790 said:
This is not a particularly helpful answer... but it all depends on the skill of the jeweler making it, the specific design, and their experience with that specific design (or the design elements, at any rate). I would figure out what style of ring you want, then figure out who does it best, no matter the method of production.
Actually it's a VERY helpful answer. The tool used is far less important than the skill of the craftsperson using it. After you choose your artist, ask them what is the most appropriate approach to the job you're considering and why.
 

slg47

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based on what I have seen on PS...

CAD is 'better' if you want to make design changes or have more control over the design process. Hand forged is 'better' if the vendor has already made something similar.

**this is just my opinion after seeing other people's rings on PS.

Also I agree with Charmy that a plain shank halo might complement your wband well since it is more of a modern style.
 

monatl

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CharmyPoo|1326735170|3104304 said:
The most popular vendors are:

[Hand Forged] Victor Canera - Out of all the popular vendors, he is the only one that is proven to do 100% hand forging of both the metal and hand set the pave. Victor do not use wax moulds.

[Hand Made] Leon / Steven - It is believed that they do a combination of hand forging and hand made. They may use hand carved moulds to cast some pieces and hand set the pave. This is an area that has not been proven but rumors have it that they do cast and hand set pave. Regardless, the net result is that they have some amazing pave done. On top of that, I would say that the flow of their metal work is by far the best.

[CAD/CAST] ERD / BGD / WF - They are vendors who utilize CAD to create a cast that includes holes for pave. You will see that their work has more metal between the melee. There work is still very nice.

My advice is to look at samples of rings you like from each of these vendors. Pick the one that looks best to your eye. None of them are perfect in every dimension.


Sorry to revive this old threat, but where does Tacori setting (Petite Crescent) fall on this list between Handforged, Handmade, and CAD/Cast?

I have not been able to find a straightforward answer anywhere on PS.
 

monatl

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Thank you so much Yssie. I'm looking for a solitaire with pave setting for a 2.25 RB G VS1 and leaning heavily towards getting the Tacori petite crescent. How would you compare the Tacori cast setting vs a handforged Victor Canera solitaire with pave in terms of quality, durability, and name recognition? How much weight should I be putting on the cast vs handforged methods?

Tacori Petite Crescent
http://www.tacori.com/ht2546rd65

And a few of the Victor Canera settings I really liked
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/pave-four-prong-solitaire
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/the-gabriella-six-prong-solitaire-with-multi-row-pave
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/the-evelyn-solitaire-with-flush-stems
 

yssie

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monatl|1434312208|3889230 said:
Thank you so much Yssie. I'm looking for a solitaire with pave setting for a 2.25 RB G VS1 and leaning heavily towards getting the Tacori petite crescent. How would you compare the Tacori cast setting vs a handforged Victor Canera solitaire with pave in terms of quality, durability, and name recognition? How much weight should I be putting on the cast vs handforged methods?

Tacori Petite Crescent
http://www.tacori.com/ht2546rd65

And a few of the Victor Canera settings I really liked
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/pave-four-prong-solitaire
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/the-gabriella-six-prong-solitaire-with-multi-row-pave
https://www.victorcanera.com/rings/the-evelyn-solitaire-with-flush-stems

Well, they're very different types of designs... the Tacori has an antique feel whereas the Canera settings all feature a much more modern aesthetic.

Re. durability - Tacori is a reputable brand and Canera's workmanship is excellent. They make their rings in different styles and use different manufacturing techniques, and there may be differences in durability between various setting styles, but there's certainly no reason to say one vendor's work is more or less "universally durable" than the other's.

Re. name recognition - Tacori is the unquestionable winner.

Re. quality - who "wins" depends entirely on how you define quality. If you have strong preferences for one style over the other, or one method of manufacture, then that's definitely something to consider... I personally have now had fully cast settings, fully hand-forged settings, and settings composed of both cast and handforged elements, and at this point I am firmly convinced that one is not better than the other - it's all contextual. My strong recommendation is to choose a vendor whose style of work you like and let that vendor determine how to manufacture the piece. Some styles are better suited to certain types of fabrication than others, some vendors are more comfortable with certain tools and technologies...
 

chrono

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I find the quality of workmanship more important than the handforged vs cast debate. I've seen both well done and poorly done handforged. I've also seen both well done and poorly done CAD/cast. If considering handforged vs CAD/cast of very high quality, then it boils down to budget and design preference.
 

Lookinagain

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I'm probably in the minority here but I have both hand forged and CAD/Cast rings, all made extremely well, so my choice isn't based on quality or any kind of durability concern. But for the price differential, I definitely go with CAD/Cast on all my current projects. Perhaps I'm not that discerning but I feel that my CAD/Cast jewelry is just as beautiful/durable as the hand forged and honestly, whenever I think about possibly resetting or even trading up on diamond size, I hesitate with my hand forged pieces because I have so much invested in the setting. I don't have this hesitation with the less expensive CAD/CAST pieces and as someone who does enjoy resetting or re-purposing stones once in awhile, I prefer to not have the guilt of abandoning a very expensive setting. Just my two cents.
 

Victor Canera

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Hi everyone!

This is an important discussion that I’d like to add my 2c into.

If we consider the fact that jewelry is made out of metal whether it be platinum, gold or silver. Hand forged metal will always be stronger than one that is cast period. This is only one of many advantages with hand fabrication but it’s something that a cast product can never get past.

Because of this even a plain old, wedding band will be stronger through greater metal density if hand fabricated compared to one that is cast. An item that is cast either with CAD\CAM or other methods will retain the metal’s natural (uncompressed) molecular state. Hand fabricated metal is milled, rolled, strained and put under extreme pressures to achieve the physical form required. This compacts the metal molecules together making the metal harder and denser.

The finest band manufacturers in the world don’t actually cast their bands. Is it because these companies can not cast their bands? The answer is obviously no. A machined (not cast) wedding band will be of higher quality than a cast one. Band manufacturers will actually go through an additional couple of steps to harden the metal of their bands and add strength to them.

In the general public. it’s actually quite rare to see a fully hand fabricate piece of jewelry. I’m not aware of a jewelry manufacturer (except some band makers) that uses the traditional distribution method to sell fully hand fabricated jewelry. In the traditional method I’m referring to a jewelry manufacturer selling to a retailer which in turn services the consumer. The reasons is that the price for entry for the consumer would be very high. Think five figures for a real hand forged jewel if sold through a high end B&M store. I know this through experience believe me. The companies that have tried to do this haven’t been successful and have gone out of business.

From my experience, jewels that can be hand fabricated will almost always be more precise, stronger and will have that crispness that a cast item can’t achieve. It is true that some designs that seem simple would take an exorbitant amount of time to hand fabricate or wouldn’t be possible to make by hand whereas with CAD it wouldn’t be an issue.

CAD\CAM or in the past, hand carved waxes which were cast were a way to mass product jewelry, bringing down their price points. It made jewelry appeal to a greater audience through lower prices. If you consider the fact that it might take a jeweler a full 2-4 days to do just the metal work on a ring, you can see that what we’re doing is an extremely niche product. With CAD\CAM you have limitless production capacity.

A hand fabricate item will almost always cost more because of the amount of labor involved. From this perspective, yes, it might not be an ideal choice for somebody that likes to switch out their jewelry every year or two.

From my lifetime of being in this business:), I've found hand fabricated jewelry to almost always lead to a higher quality product compared to a cast one.

All the best,
 

Victor Canera

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Here is another small example of how hand forged is superior to casting.
This is a super magnified photo of filigree.

There is no way on earth to get this level of detail with casting whether it be cad\cam or otherwise.
Where CAD\CAM excels at are the very, swoopy or curvy designs in jewelry which would be extremely difficult to do by hand. I know I probably explained that badly:)

Another really good example which happens pretty often is when clients ask for a very small shared prong band, let's say using 2mm round diamonds. The situation is that to hand fabricate a band for 2mm stones is actually much more work than fabricating a band for 1/2ct diamonds because you have to create many more baskets for the diamonds. The time spent would be very high and the client wouldn't get a good value if you think about the amount of carat weight diamonds used. I've mentioned this to quite a few clients and that it wouldn't be cost effective for them to have something like this hand fabricated and that they would be better served with a vendor that does CAD on these designs.

_31154.jpg
 

Rockdiamond

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This is a very interesting discussion!
Victor, I agree that in terms of finish- particularly in fine details, like your picture, as well as the density of metal, hand forged will produce a "better" product.
But I think we're overlooking a vital aspect here- durability of pave work on the finest hand forged, compared to cast.
The beauty of hand forged pieces has to do with the delicacy.
It might be a 1.8mm shank- or even a 2.2mm shank.The finest cut down pave places less metal on the diamonds.
This delicacy is only possible due to the greater strength of the hand forged metal.
But what this translates to in real life is that cast settings are heavier- and, in general, place more metal on the stones.
For this reason, stone loss may be less frequent in well made cast pieces with diamonds set into them, as compared to hand forged pieces featuring "cut down" pave.
 

Victor Canera

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Rockdiamond|1434475118|3889919 said:
This is a very interesting discussion!
Victor, I agree that in terms of finish- particularly in fine details, like your picture, as well as the density of metal, hand forged will produce a "better" product.
But I think we're overlooking a vital aspect here- durability of pave work on the finest hand forged, compared to cast.
The beauty of hand forged pieces has to do with the delicacy.
It might be a 1.8mm shank- or even a 2.2mm shank.The finest cut down pave places less metal on the diamonds.
This delicacy is only possible due to the greater strength of the hand forged metal.
But what this translates to in real life is that cast settings are heavier- and, in general, place more metal on the stones.
For this reason, stone loss may be less frequent in well made cast pieces with diamonds set into them, as compared to hand forged pieces featuring "cut down" pave.

Hi David :wavey:

I wasn't sure about what you meant, sorry, it's still 10am here and I'm just finishing my coffee:)
Pave can be set on both hand forged metal or cast metal.
The hand forged metal will always have slightly higher metal density than cast metal making it slightly stronger. This will make things like small prongs or beading a bit more durable in pave than a ring which has cast metal.

You can even test this out if you have a rolling mill. Cut out a square sheet of platinum, say 10mm x 10mm. Run the sheet the first time on the rolling mill with a slight downward adjustment. You will see that the first pass will NOT expand the surface area of the metal. What happened on the first pass is that the metal has been compacted but still stays 10mm x 10mm. Even after annealing the metal, this strength is retained.

The amount of visible metal on pave work is a matter of burring the metal to minimize it and using suitable sized diamonds on the surface area of the metal. Hand Forged metal won't have inherently more metal than cast metal in the context of pave. They can have equal amount of "minimal metal" on them BUT hand fabricated metal will have slightly more durable pave because the base metal will be denser.

This again, is one of many advantages of hand fabrication. Sometimes it's hard to verbalize the differences. It's like having an original masterpiece painting vs. one that's been copied on a copy machine, a copy of a copy made, and then copied again. The result is similar from a distance but on closer inspection, you see the loss of detail.
 

Rockdiamond

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Hi Victor:)
We totally agree on the detail aspect- hand forged provides superior results, hands down.

For us, the durability issue is important.
The cast pieces we make with pave just have more metal on the pave diamonds, and more metal in general than our finest hand forged "Cut down" pieces.
For this reason, we've noticed that it's easier for people do damage the finer hand forged cut down pieces, as opposed to the cast pieces we manufacture. In spite of the superior density on the molecular level of hand forged versus cast metal, the sheer amount of metal holding the diamond comes into play.

Within hand forged pieces, U prong is more durable than cut down, but many people love the scalloped look of cut down- so it's still very popular with our clients.

Since we use different benches for different types of jobs, your hands on experience is with actually making the jewelry, mine is with results.
I'm curious as to your experience:
Do you find one type of setting method less likely to experience stone loss after being worn?

Thank you for sharing your experience Victor
 

Victor Canera

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Rockdiamond|1434478648|3889952 said:
Hi Victor:)

For us, the durability issue is important.
The cast pieces we make with pave just have more metal on the pave diamonds, and more metal in general than our finest hand forged "Cut down" pieces.
For this reason, we've noticed that it's easier for people do damage the finer hand forged cut down pieces, as opposed to the cast pieces we manufacture. In spite of the superior density on the molecular level of hand forged versus cast metal, the sheer amount of metal holding the diamond comes into play.

Since we use different benches for different types of jobs, your hands on experience is with actually making the jewelry, mine is with results.
I'm curious as to your experience:
Do you find one type of setting method less likely to experience stone loss after being worn?

Thank you for sharing your experience Victor

I think it's important to separate the diamond setting process from the metal work which is what we're referring to when we say hand-forged or hand-fabricated, at least that's what I mean, sorry.

I'm not sure of the exact type of manufacturing you do with your cast items David, so I can't say definitively. If you do pre-cast pave ( you probably don't) then there definitely would be more metal around the diamonds.

You can have equal amounts of "minimal metal pave" on cast metal or hand forged metal. I think if you had the same person set the melee on a hand-forged piece of metal vs. a cast metal, the difference wouldn't be distinguishable. You would not get all the benefits of the hand-forged base metal work though and the durability would still be better with a ring that had metal work that was hand forged though compared to a cast version.
 

yssie

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Interesting discussion ::)

I have an open-ended question related to this conversation that I thought I'd throw out there since we have knowledgeable and experienced vendors participating in this thread...

I fully understand - and agree - that handforged/rolled metal is stronger and more durable than cast metal. I can clearly see advantages to handforging when a minimal-metal, pave-intensive look is the priority, or for wedding bands where strength and longevity in the face of daily abuse is a must. One of the concerns I do have re. handforging, though, is when it requires assembling a multitude of parts because each solder point is a weakness.

Given a piece that might need ten individual handforged sections soldered together, but which could alternatively be cast in a single mould, my instinct is to go with the cast - acknowledging that each of those ten sections, if handforged, will be individually stronger than the cast as a whole. How do you, as vendors, determine whether a piece should be handforged or cast? Are there clear lines in the sand - soldering three sections, great, soldering ten, not so much (I know this will be vendor-dependent - I suppose my true question is whether that's something you consider when deciding if/how to craft a piece)? Am I correct in thinking that the solder points are in fact weaker areas that are worth considering? I know that there are different types of solder - is there ever a use for "soft" solder in handforged jewellery?
 

Victor Canera

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Yssie|1434487691|3890021 said:
Interesting discussion ::)
One of the concerns I do have re. handforging, though, is when it requires assembling a multitude of parts because each solder point is a weakness.

Given a piece that might need ten individual handforged sections soldered together, but which could alternatively be cast in a single mould, my instinct is to go with the cast - acknowledging that each of those ten sections, if handforged, will be individually stronger than the cast as a whole.?

The assembling of the individual parts is partly what gives hand-forged pieces the refinement that cast jewels can’t achieve.

Taking your analogy, if you had 10 parts to assemble, you would prepare the fitting for the other part to be soldered on to. That might mean creating a negative half groove on the metal for a wire to be soldered with a burr on to or creating a seam where the two parts make the most surface contact. It’s not like soldering two needle points together where two very small points make contact. Finally, solder actually fills in any micro gaps between the two parts and flows into any empty areas and permanently fuses the parts together. They’re basically one part at that point. Soldering is not like laser welding for example that only creates a very cosmetic, shallow connection between two parts that can detach easily. You would be causing a lot of damage to other parts of a ring before you could ever get those two soldered parts to detach from each other again.
 

Rockdiamond

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Very good points Victor- each bench has certain aspects that make them unique. Sometimes that's a great thing ( like your work)- sometimes less so:)

In our case, we have entirely different benches, with different setters for the different types of rings.
In particular, our bench doing cast work produces pieces that are bulkier than our top of the line hand forged.
The extra metal truly adds durability in our experience. This is particularly true if the ring ever needs work done- such as size adjustment, or even soldering two rings together. If a consumer takes the hand forged cut down ring to an outside jeweler, and they have a heavy hand polishing stones will start to fall out.
Here's our hand forged cut down
cut-down-shank.jpg


Here's one of our cast shanks- you are correct- we do not use pre-cast pave. You can see how much more protection the diamonds have. Many people prefer the hand forged ring for this specific reason. But it does come at a cost.
cast-shank-1.jpg

Greetings Yssie!!
 

Victor Canera

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Hi David,

It's hard to make any observations because the two rings have different types of pave besides being from different benches.

You mentioned protection for the diamonds on the cast piece. If you're referring to the U grooves being shallower on that one, that's just a matter of the setter sticking his burr less deeply into the metal in order to make the holes for the melee. The more deeply the burr is stuck in, the deeper the U grooves will be. The more shallow it's stuck in, the shallower the u grooves will be, offering more protection. This would have to do with the setter's strategy in setting the stones and wouldn't really have anything to do with the base metal being hand forged or not.

We actually offer two different types of u-cut pave, our most popular one, shallow u-cut is named that way because the u grooves are shallow in the metal and it does offer a good amount of protection for the melee from their girdle sides. Not as much protection as bright cut pave which has walls protecting the melee on either side but more so than some other flavors.

I totally hear ya about heavy handed jewelers. Sometimes, all it takes is a polisher that doesn't have experience polishing pave to destroy a ring.

All the best,
 

lb0424

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To summarize the discussion a bit:

Hand-forged advantages:
A) Stronger durability
B) More intricate fine details - filigree (a photo posted by Victor)

CAD/cast advantages:
A) More control over design
B) "Friendly" pricing due to less labor work
C) Better at curvy angles

Pave work can be equally delicate and beautiful on hand-forged versus casted metals depending on the craftsman given that the casted piece does not have "pre-pave" holes for the diamonds.

Is there any advantages/disadvantages that I missed? Most importantly, how can one tell between a hand-forged versus casted metal piece if it is a simple Tiffiany-like six prong setting with no pave or detailed work?

Thanks!
 

LLJsmom

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lb0424|1435154602|3893480 said:
To summarize the discussion a bit:

Is there any advantages/disadvantages that I missed? Most importantly, how can one tell between a hand-forged versus casted metal piece if it is a simple Tiffiany-like six prong setting with no pave or detailed work?

Thanks!

Good question. I also would like to add to that question. I have only seen bulky claws on cast pieces. On hand forged pieces, and I've only seen Victor Canera's and Singlestone's, the claws are super delicate and finely made. The difference was very apparent to my eyes. I also have six-prong martini settings for my studs from whiteflash, which are also very finely made, not as fine as Canera or Singlestone, but very close. All platinum pieces.

Does anyone have pictures of a cast piece that has very finely made claws that they can share, or point us to posts? Just cause I haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I've seen relatively few hand forged pieces compared to many PSers. To answer the OP's question, that would be one of the obvious things that would be different on a simple Tiffany-like 6 prong that is cast v. hand forged. That's only if the OP wants sharp claw prongs too...
 

lb0424

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 16, 2015
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LLJsmom|1435163423|3893554 said:
Good question. I also would like to add to that question. I have only seen bulky claws on cast pieces. On hand forged pieces, and I've only seen Victor Canera's and Singlestone's, the claws are super delicate and finely made. The difference was very apparent to my eyes. I also have six-prong martini settings for my studs from whiteflash, which are also very finely made, not as fine as Canera or Singlestone, but very close. All platinum pieces.

Does anyone have pictures of a cast piece that has very finely made claws that they can share, or point us to posts? Just cause I haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I've seen relatively few hand forged pieces compared to many PSers. To answer the OP's question, that would be one of the obvious things that would be different on a simple Tiffany-like 6 prong that is cast v. hand forged. That's only if the OP wants sharp claw prongs too...

I LOVE the claws being so delicate and finely made that they just blend in with the diamond. So are delicate prongs only doable on hand-forged metal because of its durability or are they solely dependent on the jeweler supreme capability to finish off the prongs that way and achievable on CAD/cast metal rings?

@LLJsmom - your Victor Canera setting is so lovely and I wished I had that kind of budget!
 
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