When the casting machine has stopped it's rotation you can take the flask, with the gold now solidified inside the area where the wax was, and submerge it under water, using the heat to break down the cured plaster quickly and nearly completely... Some alloy mixtures and metals suffer with quenching, but I'm not runnin' a damn class here so while general the information is valid there will be some exceptions to this information. Some folks have promoted the casting of stones in the wax, but I've found that the expandion and contractions would have been too profound for the stones. Note that this wax has tapered bagguettes and I don't think risking a thousand bucks worth of customer's stones is a smart idea, do you? ....me neither.....

I don't like risks myself, I find that if I use the best materials and workers that I can find my customers tend to appreciate the extra effort. We just don't like cutting corners or cheap excuses about why something wasn't done right. I get sick of hearing about shops who place such a low value on quality work, shit, when the talking and marketing are over you have to be able to sit down and back up your promises with good work, consistant result and dependable service...

The next stage is a careful hand detailing and finishing of every line, angle and detail of the design in metal. If it's carefully done it's likely to be a lasting treasure for it's owner, and a constant source of enjoyment... If it's botched it's ruined...

The sprue is now cut off and the ring is completely hand filed and finished to a high polish... ...before the stones are set is the proper time to detail the mounting and get the channel floors polished and detailed, completely impossible with casting in stones. A crude file job can result in thin shanks, crooked mounting and insecure stone setting, I employ only skilled union benchworkers because I hate angry phonecalls and made them go away years ago by surrounding myself with talented skilled workers & a better class of customer...

...So you start with a file and chase the outer surfaces, working down to a polishing paper wrapped tightly on a wooden strip. Emery and polishing papering down to a finished surface... Before the stones are set its lovingly detailed by the bench worker so that the polisher won't have to bear down and round up all the nice angles carved on the original wax pattern... If a benchmonkey get's the job at this stage it's not a good sign, every step is critical for a perfectly fine finished item...

On bagguette tapering rows and other challenging projects I like to have the diamond setters pre-fit the stones and setail the channels before the stones are set. This assures that the stones are brighter, that dirt won't tend to hang up in the space between the stones and the setting's bases... A ring which is highly polished under the stones is much easier to keep clean and looks better longer... Smart jewelry is always better, visibly :)

Quality isn't some word that is bantered about at sales counters, it's the minimum standard for the way things should be... Quality is visible, it's engineered products and well concieved designs, I'd define quality as "a lasting value"...