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Cutaway: front half removed
Twelve ways a setter holds a stone, on one ring. Switch setting, slice the ring open to see how the metal grips, and check which settings suit your stone.
Centre stone · dot = fit for the stone you choose
Rows and small stones
General guidance for well-made pieces. Design and workmanship matter as much as the setting type, so ask your setter about a specific piece. Click a row to see it on the ring.
| Setting | Light into the stone | Edge protection | Snagging | Resizing | Fit for diamond |
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GIA separates setting types (how a stone is physically held) from setting styles (the overall design, which can use any type). On the bench, setters also use their own names for techniques and variations. Some you will hear:
A halo rings the centre stone with small stones; pavé covers metal with small stones; cathedral arches rise from the shank to the head. Each can be combined with prong or bezel. Try "Add a halo" and "Pavé shoulders".
The setter raises small grains of metal with a graver and rounds them with a beading tool. Each grain pushes onto the edge of a stone. Pavé, French and star settings all use grains.
After raising the grains, the setter cuts clean, mirror-bright lines around them with a flat graver. Also called threading in parts of Europe.
Claw and prong mean the same thing. V-prongs (chevrons) protect the pointed corners of pear, marquise and princess cuts.
Different workshop names for stones set level with the metal. A star setting adds engraved lines running out from the stone.
A prong setting whose prongs are joined by horizontal wires (a gallery) for extra support, as in the prong ring above.
A fish-eye is a cutting fault: a diamond with a too-shallow pavilion shows a dull grey ring inside the table. The setting with a similar name is the fishtail.
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