Setting a Gem into a Mother Of Pearl Guitar Nut for HTOB | Experimental Luthiery 101

[@docdoc]

The type of stuff no one would ever do if it weren't for youtube, but we love it

[@jimbobmago]

Ben's voice is the most calming thing on KZbin

[@barrychristian4050]

Very nice now you need to put one in the other side for balance maybe a green stone so you've got port and starboard ?

[@francisdbrooksjr5025]

You never cease to amaze me with your patience and skill......and the obscure tools you find to use! Bravo Bravo!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you very much!

[@Ed_Robson_1970]

*AUTOSOL*!!! Dammit, I've been using Anusol! No wonder my frets keep shrinking and falling out! On the plus side, my wife does like my shiny bottom!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Oh lol!! Made my Monday morning with this one dude!

[@Ed_Robson_1970]

@@CrimsonCustomGuitars you're welcome (formerly The Artful Todger!)

[@tonyhunt4250]

Kudos to the editor or whomever created that intro, but the editing on these videos is brilliant. Noah called, and would like to have his pitch back when you're done. Loved these videos.

[@typerexc]

It's beautiful. I love watching you work, and your attention to detail. When I find myself in a rough patch, I hear your voice in my head telling me to "go make some sawdust!" - and I do (in my way - not guitars, but it counts). There's something meditative about it. Good to see you happy.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you. This means a lot

[@michaelhumphreys7882]

Good to see you back on form Ben.

[@jfo1344]

Love this Ben, love watching you have fun building

[@moogoomoogoo5990]

I can’t believe he had the tiny stone loose on his workbench and didn’t lose it.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

That you know of lol 😜 there should be an outtake video with all the times I dropped the damn setting!

[@alanpiper1942]

@@CrimsonCustomGuitarsblue tac next time

[@insederec]

I joke often that most of our time spent as jewelers is on our hands and knees looking for stones

[@chandrastory5239]

My husband just commented that he wanted a "Ben Crowe" of chisels. You are now a unit of measure, Ben!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

I love this!

[@insederec]

Longtime viewer, journeyman jeweler from the states. Thought I should weigh in! First off, congrats, you did it. With the right tools bezels are still challenging to do. So none of this is my attempt to gatekeep, just suggestions for next time perhaps. 1. There is no one perfect tool for removing stones because there is no one setting. I've used flush cutters, gravers, pliers, and indeed there is a tool called a prong puller that generally is great for pulling prongs. Imagine. 2. The holes under the setting do help let light through but depending on the stone and the cut that may be better served by making the setting a polished cup. You'll see that a lot with morganite set in rose gold, really pops. The second purpose is a relief hole. When dirt accumulates it is next to impossible to get out from under a stone unless the setting is air tight, which is effectively impossible with prongs. Holes make steam cleaning much easier. 3. I know how much you love old tools, and so do I, but no, fancy tools are not the name of the game for most jewelers. We improvise. In fact if were polishing that I would just load up a felt buff, dowel, toothpick, or horsehair brush (my favorite) and go to town at max speed in a drill or flex shaft. Five minute job. 4. Pitch is fantastic. 5. Your stone wanted to rock because you have no seat (brits call them bearing edges... not sure about south Africans). The stone wants to slide up the curved wall. The ideal bezel setting has a thick bottom and the girdle of the stone (or the bottom face, for cabochons) rests on a lip where above it is a thin strip of metal, often fine silver, that goes up about 1/3 of the crown or up the side of a cab. This is cut using a bur (fraise for brits) or soldering the bezel wire on top of a base. 6. Setting the stone is much easier done in a star pattern, like tuning a drum. Creases are avoided by using thin enough walls and by carefully massaging them out before fully folding the bezel over. Afterwards the final level of perfection is to use a graver to make the top of the bezel (now facing to the table of the stone) even. 7. Last, your force when hammering the bezel is very chaotic because you didn't use a chasing tool. Even going that gentle it's surprising you didn't chip the stone, but once again, well done. Hope to see more attempts at learning more jeweler skills, I know how obtuse a lot of it can be! Cheers!

[@adamdutton9922]

As a travel guitar that gorgeous bejewelled thing will need a case befitting it. Thanks for this series - I’m loving it.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

My pleasure!

[@Slikx666]

It may be a small thing but it's worth doing. 🧐👍

[@davedavem]

Ben and Crimson Editors, you're spoiling us. Strange unique creativeness, two videos in short order and a very creative intro!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

I'm going to be making far more, and more interesting, videos moving forward.. But the intro is Bear being Bear.. The man is amazing!

[@smmyers5956]

Thank you Ben. Fun and entertaining as usual.

[@Chris-ed3cr]

I'm a retired goldsmith with over 50 years at the bench and I must say you Get 10 out of 10 for ingenuity 😊 I can't lie I did wince a little but you did amazingly well for someone who has never done it before and didn't have the right tools. There are certainly a few easy thing you could to make your life easier. Use shellac or setters cement on a small dowel to hold your setting. I haven't used one in 50 years but for fun keep your eye out for a string archimedes fine pump upright drill. You can make your own drills by breaking the eye off a sowing needle and sharpening it. You can drill holes quite quickly when you get used to it. You can use cotton wool on a small wood or plastic rod for polishing. This would be much easier with a flexi shaft with rubber wheels and cylinders of course but obviously that's not the point. Sorry for the lack of detail but this could go on for ages. Good luck with your future endeavors.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank youso much for sharing your knowledge

[@Chris-ed3cr]

@@CrimsonCustomGuitarsAnother tip Ben if you don't have a hole to push the stone out from the back you can mix beeswax and fine charcoal dust together (used to be coal soot from the chimney) you'll have to experiment a little with the ratio. It has amazing suction if you get the mix right. If its cold you have to knead it a little to soften it. We use it to pick up stones as well to place them in settings. If you don't press it hard on the stone it's enough to pick it up but releases easily in the setting. Very important when you have very small diamonds to set.

[@nicholas3139]

ooh! i know this! next time use an x-acto blade to get between the stone & the prong. also a pair of super flush-cut pliers can come in handy to pry the prong back or snip it off. keep up the experimenting!

[@scottmc9098]

Great video Ben! I love the idea of using set gems for fret markers! If you've not already, you should watch some Ford Hallam videos. He makes the most exquisite Japanese sword guards and other parts, using some of the same techniques you showed today. It was the pitch bowl that reminded me. Its very relaxing to watch great craftsmanship.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you, I'll check it out! Inspiration comes from everywhere!

[@BLBlackDragon]

That is gorgeous. Well done.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you

[@stephencarey6114]

Absolutely love this Ben. As an ex jeweller I appreciate your hard work

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@normbarrows2]

Now you have to do a build with gemstone fretboard markers and side dots which are backlit by an LED strip in the neck. Combine the gemstone inlay of the hand tool build with the LED strip from the Cyberpunk build.

[@mattomon1045]

Yes Ben You are a Fire Byg!

[@ritchandsj3333]

You’ve done a great job with the tools you have👍 if you decide to have another go rather than using burnishes to fold over the metal a setting punch or a modified nail tapped with a hammer would do the job much easier starting north, south, east, west then completing the circumference. You could the. Use the tip of your burnishing tool to gently run around the inside edge of your setting to get a nice sparkle ✨ But yes, making jewellery is much harder than the videos on KZbin make it look, I’m still working on my skills and soldering jump rings is my nemesis!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Soldering! It is a dark art, a dark and scary art! I will be getting more tools and a setting punch, customised or purpose bought is next on the list.. I really enjoyed this and want to do more! Thank you for the burnishing tip too!

[@johnking3863]

An old pal of mine taught me the lesson of not to look at things for what they are but for what they could be.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Something to live by

[@chase_modugno]

Awesome You should consider getting one of those steam punk goggles with multiple magnifying glasses attached to it.

[@ffotograffydd]

For future reference, you can use a small piece of shaped BluTac stuck to the face of the stone to help you position it more easily so that it goes in straight. It’s hard to describe, but I’m sure there are plenty of videos showing this technique.

[@insederec]

Or rotico or sticky wax mixed with charcoal. Or water or spit on the end of a beading tool or brass rod.

[@gregoryh4601]

Sir Ben. I will be sitting down for Breakfast with my Plate of Crow. Yes you still working on the 4x4 Guitar. Hope you forgive me on my mistake . Peace be with you

[@LeoWal01]

Nice to see you come to a solution you are satisfied with. My point of view: too bad it's out of centre...

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

I agree.. I am tempted to inset two of the smaller stones to make a nice triangle there?

[@LeoWal01]

@@CrimsonCustomGuitars Hmm, you probably will make it yourself very difficult. Why not try to enlarge the hole, maybe square it centerly and do something you did on the fretboard? Why not a little silver square filled with the same wood as the fretboard? The ruby to me was not the best idea, because of the impossibility to shine without a backlight...

[@borgonianevolution]

its a neat idea and a decent first go but the stone being off center is kind of triggering after you trained us all so hard on symmetry hahah The Feng Shui has a bit of sway to it.

[@mattomon1045]

It is a great Nut Ben!

[@kamikaze8645]

Aluminium oxide powder, and a drop of water, turn into paste, and it will polish the gemstone, the silver and the mother of pearl like a jeweller's done it :)

[@PaulCooksStuff]

17:02 anyone else seeing E.T's staring back at them?

[@stu-j]

This is a better than taking your old engagement rings to cash converters lol 😂

[@ianthomson9363]

I thoroughly enjoyed this and the previous video, and the end result looks great.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you very much!

[@minimoog4236]

And of course the other stones need to be inset as fret markers.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

But on another guitar.. I really should try and finish this build maybe?

[@SatanSupimpa]

Hey Ben, here's a weird question and maybe a challenge. If you had to go to the woods and come back with the closest thing to a guitar you could manage to fabricate, but could take only a single tool with you, what this tool would be?

[@insederec]

I feel like he would probably say Japanese rasp

[@myrandarose2883]

Love your stuff Ben, but as a former goldsmith with setting experience - I watched this like some people watch horror movies :D During my apprenticeship there were two standards "perfect" and "crap do it again" so I have possibly ludicrously high standards when it comes to settings - and hey you didn't break the stone so thats step 1 However, you I think would be surpised at how often small independant jewellers make thier own tools. Suppliers of jewellers tools seem to assume you're rich so charge huge premiums, so we would always try to make something rather than pay crazy prices

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

I absolutely knew that this would be the barest beginning of a skill tree, and had a side bet with myself on how long it would take for the words 'horror movie' to show up in the chat 😁 I do agree with you, perfection is always the goal, and now I see that this sort of work really can be applied to guitar building I am going to try and get some proper tools and maybe a little in person training so I can do it properly.. Also, I had a total blast this week, and want more! Tool making! It is the way! 😍

[@RattiDave]

I never throw away bamboo chopsticks and toothpicks for this very reason. Never know when you''ll need something like this.c

[@campbellmj9405]

It's the "slightly wrong angle" things that hurt the most. The hardest part is letting it be. Even DaVinci had to stop painting the Mona Lisa and be okay with it.

[@kermode9774]

Cheeky question incoming…. Does a gas powered torch count as a hand only tool?! 😉

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

It's not powered by electricity or plugged into a wall. Does that count?

[@Tomtraubert2009]

Silly me, I thought he was going to put it in the spaces between the string slots.

[@twintype]

Yeah buddy!

[@markchristianson3653]

With regard to the subject of too many tools. If you still have room for more, you don't have too many tools.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Excellent point!

[@mrzedlyt]

a Q-tip, perhaps?

[@scottiecasey9312]

The ingraveing line on the guitar should b inkayed with mother of pearl

[@brendangilmore4297]

Speaking as a jeweller (and gemsetter of over 30 years) it's nice to not be doing this job :) No seriously the point of holes under the stones isn't so much to let light in ('cos it can't) but to reduce weight and allow for easier cleaning - and also helps remove stones should you need to 🙃 btw I want that little pin vise....

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Hi Brendan, thank you for this.. I've been spouting nonsense about the holes behind stones for years now 😳 And you can't have my pin vice lol, I love it too much! But.. Drop me an email and if you really really want one I could look at making one for you? Although, with your skills, I am absolutely sure that you could make one yourself? Alternatively it is a vintage, probably early victorian, fly tieing vice and you may be able to find one for sale online?

[@jarrodnanson3573]

I do like your work generally, but this seems like an awful lot of effort for something not so nice, think zirconium fretboard markers would be nicer.

[@MrDeanelwood]

Wow.

[@GoadieTheRoadie]

Poodles Plumbs

[@ChrisWilliams-cb9kt]

Maybe just use a cheap earring Ben? 😂

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Of course, but that way I don't learn anything 😔 I crave new knowledge and skillz yo 😅

[@alexcorona]

If you need gemstones I’ll send ya a bunch, nobody even buys them here in the states. I scrap gold and silver and have to remove them during the process.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Sign me up, with bells on me friend! I am absolutely Loving this stuff 😍 drop me an email and we can sort something out, I'll be sure to make it worth your while too, I appreciate the offer, but would love to reciprocate too.

[@BlaisPianoGuitars]

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