Hammer Setting

[James Gillock]

hemajority of the setting work I do requires the use of a

hammer and punch. The metal is pounded down onto or over the

stone by hand to accomplish the setting. Although a

reciprocating hammer attachment for a flexshaft can also be

used in place of a hammer and hand held punch, personally, I

prefer the latter as it allows me to feel the movement and

compression of the metal through the punch as it is being

applied. Using a hammer and punch also allows me better control

of the force and direction of the strike which provides more

accurate effect upon the metal being moved.

There are many sizes of chasing hammers available with

differing weights and face size. It is advisable to choose a

suitable tool and use it with the right amount of force,

rather than striking too firmly with too light of a hammer

which reduces the control and the effectiveness of the punch.

The setting punches should be neither too long, which makes

them unwieldy, nor too short, which makes them difficult to

strike. A good length for most applications is 3 to 4 inches.

The punch also needs to be heavy enough to persuade the metal

to move under the strike of the hammer. The end being struck

should have sufficient surface area to allow it to be struck

soundly and without a tendency for the blow to glance off the

punch. Tape can be applied to the shaft of the punch to make

it more comfortable in the fingers and to promote a better

grip.

My favorite and most frequently used setting punches are nail

setting punches I bought at a hardware store. The nail sets

have a textured tapered shaft and a larger square end which

makes them easy to strike. They also have substantial weight

which is helpful in encouraging the metal to move when

working with a heavy bezel or thick walled tubing. By

flattening and smoothing the round face I have a punch which

is far less likely to mar the surface of the metal than a

square or rectangular face with sharp sides and corners. The

round face can be ever so slightly beveled at the edge to make

it even less likely to leave an unwanted mark on the metal

being struck.

When I am pounding down the metal on a thick walled bezel I

can achieve a planished and burnished surface on the top edge

of the bezel as the metal compresses under the punch. By

moving the tool steadily and sliding it along the bezel as the

punch is struck it leaves a very smooth even face which is

relatively free of punch marks that need to be filed or

otherwise removed. This is quite beneficial when working with

gemstones which are particularly susceptible to scratching as

it eliminates the need for running a file along the bezel

edge to correct it.

I hope this is helpful, as well as encouraging. Just like all

procedures it requires equal amounts of practical application and

examination to become confident and proficient with any new

technique. Making a series of practice exercises with thick silver

bezel and some durable cabochons is a good place to begin. Once you

develop a feel for the movement of the metal using a hammer and

punch you will find it very enjoyable. Not to mention the aesthetic

advantage a nice thick bezel adds to the piece of jewelry.

Since I am in bootstrap mode I would rather improvise an equivalent

effect rather than earn it. But the GOOD news is, I have a 4-axis

CNC tabletop mill, so I can (in theory) create a rotary bit for a

flex-shaft.

It would seem that a swas (with apologies to Jewish people, since I

am Jewish myself, but I only know one word for the shape) stika,

centered on the shank of the bit, would provide a balanced set of 4

hammers to close the top of the bezel over the stone.

The simplest rotary burnisher (or hammer if you like) is simply a

bent bur. Take an old dull busch bur, remove the original working

end. Turn it over, heat the last quarter inch or so of the back end

of the bur and bend it to a short L shape. round off and highly

polish the end of the short leg of the L. In use, the long end goes

in your dremel or flex shaft chuck, and the short end, flying around,

can burnish out pits and defects in a casting. If you want to get

fancy, make one where the working end is a bit of carbide soldered

on, equally rounded and highly polished. That gives less friction

with the metal, and lasts longer. With some care, and lubricant, you

might be able to move bezels too. But I doubt that this will be a

strong improvement over just using a burnisher, or hammer and punches

for heavier metal.

We used this sort of hand-made bit starting in 1994It was a balanced

and slightly polished set of 4 hammers. Primarily we used it to

muscle over metal where there was porosity to compress the area.

Great tool !

or My favourite is a masonry nail that is simply shaped on a bench

grinder (or with your dremel) to make the neck less thick at the top

than it comes out of the box, Once shaped it makes a flattened "t"

shaped bit that will pound the metal around the stone (particularly

appropriate for pear and marquise shapes, whereas the nut on nail is

better for the round, trillion,trilliant, or emerald shaped stones

take a matching screw driver if not nuts and put it in place on the screw.....firmly tap on the end of the screwdriver with a hammer several times to break the bind (bond) of the rust around the threads.

Those are great tools, but why do they always come with the Mega Size bits? Really, I don't get it. I usually use a 3/8 to 1/4 inch adapter with a 1/4 inch socket and a quarter inch drive bit of some type that falls out everytime I turn around. Still gets the job done once in a while. Usually the head fails, sometimes the bit fails, and probably most of the time the screw loosens.

I recently met a local BC'er who was using a TH pre-amp and mentioned this post I read on TB years ago. The words are not my own and if I recall correctly from...Eubert on TB? I think he's credited in the post. He was basically comparing the Tech 21 Sans amp bass di box and then spoke about his experience with the Tone Hammer.

Basically with the AGS button engaged the TH parameters become more interactive and work differently than in clean pre-amp mode.

Read on...

"With the AGS off, the Tone Hammer is a uber clean EQ with gain boost. Very high quality, and the sweepable mids are fantastic. You know how everyone raves about the Sadowsky outboard preamp/DI pedal. I had one, until I got my Tone Hammer. The TH covered the Sadowsky thing VERY well. The low control has the same 40 hz setting with the AGS off, as does the 4k treble setting. The sweepable mids on the TH are just wonderful, though I do wish it would go up to about 2k. No big deal.

The EQ on the TH is flat when it is engaged. When you also turn on the AGS, at the lowest setting, there is no hair on the notes at all. Again, NO hair at all unless your bass is just SUPER hot in terms of output. What does happen when you engage the AGS is that highs are immediately rolled off in a way that simulates a vintage tweeterless cabinet. So the tone gets warmer sounding off the bat, even though the lows and mids are still the same. The Treble control now acts more like a Presence knob does on the Sansamp stuff. It dials in grindy mids in the 2.5k region. Very slick. The lows are tightened up a bit as you boost them, so instead of getting really deep and boomy, they get fat and vintage. Again, still no hair on the notes because the AGS gain is fully counter clockwise. The mid control still allows you to cut/boost mids where you want them. Very slick. Vintage tones with no hair.

As you add more AGS gain, the tone gets warmer until you get some hair, and then it starts overdriving. With the EQ flat, the overdrive tone is VERY mid-oriented such that it can sound a bit nasally and harsh. But remember, this is with the EQ flat, and most folks who are used to hearing a classic tube amp (think SVT for example) should note that an SVT is no where near flat. There's a mid scoop. So to get rid of that nasally midrange in the TH, you have to cut mids as you boost the gain. Setting the knob around 2-3 o'clock puts the mid control around the 750 hz mark, where you'll get some classic SVT'ish mid scoop going. Start cutting the mids there to get the tone you want. Cut to anywhere from 10 to 8 o'clock, and you can pretty much close your eyes and thing your running through the BDDI and not the Tone Hammer. The cool thing is that you aren't having to use a Blend knob at all to control that mid scoop. Just scoop the mids as deep as you like to get the tone you're after, and then adjust the Treble (which now more like a Presence, remember?) to get the amount of cut you want. Then, dial up the bass if you want it fat and deep, or cut it back to keep a thinner tone. Very slick, and way cool.

Here's another trick about the TH that I use a good bit. I'll scoop the mids ALL the way out around 750 hz for a rock tone. With the Bass/Treble boosted to around 2 o'clock, this is very similar to the "Fat Tube" setting from the BDDI manual. But the cool trick is instead to cut treble and bass back. I'll set bass to 11 or maybe 10 o'clock, and cut treble all the way back to 8 or 9 o'clock. The result is a very warm, lower-mid dominant tone (because the upper mids and lows are cut back so far), with a subtle, understated top end. It's very B15'ish and sounds awesome with a P bass or jazz with flats. At this point, if you want more depth, rather than boosting the bass, you move the mid frequency knob clockwise, which pools out upper mids and articulation. If you want more of that, then you move the knob counter clockwise to bring those upper mids back into the tone. The highs and lows stay the same, so it's an easy way to adjust your tone on the gig to get more/less articulation in the mix.

These are just a few examples of what the Tone Hammer can do. I'm a huge fan of it obviously, but I came from being a BDDI user for quite a while, and I just never could bond with the new VT pedal. I still love and have a deep respect for the BDDI, and while I don't use one myself much anymore, I know I can always make it work. The Para Driver I wouldn't bother with myself.

A lot of folks around here have slammed the Tone Hammer because you can't use the AGS like a second channel, where you can engage/disengage overdrive at will without causing volume differences. I guess I can understand that, but really that's not the Aguilar'sdesign intent. Instead, think of it more as a single channel tone shaper, that will "hammer" (pardon the pun) your tone into a wide variety of directions. It just takes a little time playing with the controls to figure out what does what. I still learn new things about it all the time. It's not that it's complicated, but rather that the AGS circuit ties in very closely to the mid control, so changing the mids affects the overdrive tone, and the more gain you add, the more the low end tightens up to prevent things from getting muddy."

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