Pusher — The Bench Tool That Moves Metal Over a Stone
Pusher — The Bench Tool That Moves Metal Over a Stone
A hand tool used by jewellers to manipulate metal during stone setting
A pusher is a hand tool used by setters and bench jewellers to manipulate metal during stone setting. The tool consists of a wooden or polymer handle fitted with a hardened steel tip that the setter presses, rocks, or rolls against bezel walls, prong tips, or grain seats to drive metal into contact with a stone. Pushers are not struck with a hammer; they are pressure tools, and the setter's hand and forearm provide the force. The distinction matters: a hammered tool delivers an impulse, while a pusher applies controlled, sustained pressure that flows soft metal without shocking the stone or fracturing inclusions near the girdle.
Form and variants
The working tip may be flat, slightly domed, curved, or angled, with finely polished bearing surfaces to avoid marring adjacent metal. Bead pushers carry a small, near-hemispherical concavity at the tip that forms a half-bead from a raised burr of metal. Bezel pushers are typically flat or slightly curved and are used to roll a bezel rim over the girdle of a cabochon or faceted stone. Prong pushers are narrower and angled to reach beneath prong tips and nudge them inward without slipping off the metal. Reciprocating pneumatic pushers, sometimes called hammer-handpieces, deliver a controlled rapid impulse and have replaced manual pushers for high-volume pavé in modern production shops.
Many setters keep a graduated set of three to six pushers at the bench and re-shape tips as work demands. The handle is typically turned hardwood or moulded plastic, sized to fit the palm so that the wrist remains neutral during long setting sessions. Repetitive strain considerations have driven a shift toward ergonomic handles with broader grips and lighter heads.
In use
The pusher is essential for pavé and grain setting, where dozens or hundreds of small stones must be secured by precisely formed beads or fishtail prongs raised from the surrounding metal. The setter scores and raises the metal with a graver, then uses the bead pusher to consolidate the burr into a clean hemispherical bead over the stone's table edge. The same tool, with a different tip profile, walks bezel metal over a cabochon's girdle in a sequence of small overlapping movements rather than a single sweep — single-stroke bezel work tends to leave waves and tool marks that polish out only with significant material removal.
Tip dressing matters: a glazed or chipped tip will skid across the metal and produce surface scratches that must be removed in finishing. Setters polish pusher tips on fine emery or a charged buff and re-dress the working face whenever it loses bite. A well-maintained pusher leaves a burnished, mirror-bright contact patch on the metal that requires only light final polishing.
In the trade
Pushers are inexpensive consumables in production work and prized personal tools at the master-setter bench. A senior setter's pusher tips are often unique to the hand that shaped them and are not interchangeable between setters without re-dressing. The tool is one of the small group — pusher, graver, burnisher, beading tool — that defines the bench setter's craft and that no machine has fully replaced for fine work.