Weapons of choicethese are the tools I use to push metal over the edges of gemstones to hold them in place. Hoping the shed the light on the pressures and stress and concentration needed to set a stone. The tool in the back ground is my tradeschool made push tool. It’s basically just a big nail in a handle I ground down to form a flat which I then polished so it leaves next to no marks on the metal. I hold the ring in a clamp in one hand and this tool in the other. I use my bench peg (the thing all these tools are sitting on) It takes all my strength to push the metal over with the tool and the other hand to hold the clamp and not let either slip. One slip and you can take out the stone or your other hand. I’m actually thankful to have to patch up my hand with a bandaid rather than smash a stone when this happens? Once the metal is pushed over as much as I can by hand, I then use a hammer and nail with its end ground off like the hand tool and tap around the edge of the setting with the nail using the hammer. Yep that’s how I do it! That’s why I sometimes talk about the need to get into the right headspace before I set stones. Sometimes I put it off if I can until the right moment. This week I have had some fantastic setting time