Cross-drilling pearls?

[ji808]

I'm using a golden south sea that I'll be setting into a ring. It's currently tapped 1.1mm halfway on one side, but I was wondering if it would potentially put the pearl at risk if I re-drilled it from a different angle. Because of what I'm making, it has to have the 1.1mm half-tapped hole on one side and a 3mm hole cutting perpendicular to the smaller tap and through the entire pearl, most likely connecting with the smaller tap near the middle. Would this threaten the integrity of the nacre or just of the pearl as a whole? Or would it be safe to do? The pearl would be stationary once set and semi-protected. It would be done with one of the higher-quality japanese drilling machines and would have a smooth-edged hole drilled
Thanks!

 

[ji808]

it's a roughly 13mm pearl

 

[pattye]

Many of our members who are experienced pearl drillers are at the Hong Kong show, so I'm giving this post a bump in hopes that one of them will see it. We'd love to see the ring when finished!

 

[ji808]

Thanks! The ring is going to be several months in the making, but it's for a competition and should be done sometime in November. Assuming everything goes according to plan, I should be able to post some pictures of it then! Assuming I can cross-drill the pearl, that is. Otherwise, I'll have to figure out a slightly different use for it. I'm currently planning on using it as the ring's focal point, with a tube set diamond coming out of the top of the pearl (facing the tip of the finger) flush with the curve of the pearl, combined with the standard tapped hole setting with a 2-part epoxy for added support and strength

 

[pearlescence]

If the setting for the diamond is only really counter-sunk in effect I can't see how it would cause any problems. I've just seen tahitians with carved nacre and drilled so they will go on one of those pandora type bracelets.

 

[ji808]

I was just wondering if having such a large hole (3-3.2mm) completely through the pearl in addition to the tap for setting would risk the integrity in the long-term
The shape that I got for the plan is egg-shaped, and is roughly 11x14mm. I would be getting it drilled from the top to the bottom (top to bottom of the "egg")

 

[pearlescence]

Oh, I didn't see that about such a big full drill...not sure.

 

[ji808]

yeah... I suppose if it's an issue, I could scale down the tube size to 2 or 2.5mm and use a 1 to 1.5mm diamond, but I'll already be using (hopefully) several others similar to that size in different aspects of the piece