Notes for Chinese Stones and Settings
Chinese Stones
The Chinese stones are great stones that are machine cut and have a lot of bling. However, there are some down sides to the Chinese stones. The thickness of the girdles (the edges) of the stones are not always consistent. The die lots with these stones are not always consistent as well. When we get stones in that are way off color we will list them as a new item. However, if they are slightly off they will go under their regular color listing. The coloring may be slightly different from one lot to the next. If you have a project where you need all the stones to be the exact same shade you will need to put that in the notes of your order and give us permission to contact you and wait for further instructions.
Settings
The settings that we sell are mostly made in the USA. However, we do also have some that come out of Germany and some that come out of Austria. All of our settings are a good heavy quality of brass and are mostly made for Swarovski or Czech stones. All are a golden brass with the exception of the German settings. The German settings are a red brass.
Since these settings are not made for the Chinese stones you will not always have a perfect fit. The superior quality of these settings outweighs any difficulty of setting the stones. The Chinese settings that we have seen are not only very, very thin but, the stones are not a perfect fit in them either.
As stated in information about the Chinese stones, these stones tend to have a large girdle (edge). The stones that tend to be the most problematic are the 18/9 navettes and sometimes the 15/7 navettes. If you can not fold the prongs up over a stone the best thing to due is line the settings with glue, place the stones in it, allow the glue to dry and then come back and close the prongs around the stone as best you can. Sometimes this will mean just pinching the prongs up against the settings.
Basically any stone that is difficult to set should be glued first and then come back and close the prongs once the glue has dried.
For the most part the stones/settings that are most problematic are the navettes as listed above and the ovals. The prongs are generally long enough on the ovals. However, the stones tend to wobble a bit. Another stone that you may have issues with is the 14mm stone. It is easy to set. However, the stones sits further down in the settings than that of the other stones.