Preset Pave as Compared to Hand Made Pave

Background

In the modern day, the main goal with jewelry manufacturers is minimizing labor costs thereby lowering costs and producing jewelry in quantity; mass production. One way this is achieved is with preset pave.

What is Preset Pave?

Preset pave is when the pave for a jewel is programmed in CAD and cast. A CAD designer in other words creates the pave beads and holes for melee on 3D design software. After casting, all that is required of a craftsman is to simply place the diamond inside the already created holes and tighten the beads.

In comparison and in the past, pave was done by hand which the trade terms hand made pave. Hand made pave is when a craftsman begins with a “blank canvas” of metal (where there are no holes/walls or prongs already in place). Tools like burrs and gravers are used to drill the holes for the diamonds on the metal and then form the beads with a sharp tool called a graver which becomes pave.

Handmade Pave
There is a differentiation in quality between hand made pave and preset pave. Hand made pave produces much finer details on the metal such as more delicate micro beads, more clean grooves and/or metal walls. Preset pave is more clunky and thick in comparison with less fine details. The micro beads are less delicate and grooves and/or walls have less detail to hand made pave. In addition, since skilled labor is not required to do preset pave, the overall quality of a jewel is degraded further. Diamonds fall out of preset pave pieces much more frequently than with hand made pave so there is also a durability difference which becomes apparent over time. The advantage of preset pave to a jewelry manufacturer is that it allows for mass production with lower labor costs resulting in jewelry at lower price points.

How can you tell the difference?
So how can a consumer tell the difference between hand made pave and preset pave? Here are a few tips. Large online vendors, in order to achieve the volumes needed, almost always sell preset pave pieces. Additionally, images or rotating videos of jewelry generated from 3D computer models with pave mean they have preset pave. This is because the images are generated by CAD and already have the pave implemented into the design. On physical jewelry, look for thick micro beads holding the diamonds. Melee are usually larger in preset pave with sizes of 1.2mm and greater to offset the thicker, less detailed metal work. Take note of melee diamonds that seem large and oversized.

At Victor Canera one of our core principles is to offer the highest level of craftsmanship to the consumer. To this end, all of our pave pieces are set with handmade pave.