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Inexpensive jewelers tools to kick-start your workshopYou don’t need to run out and buy a bunch of new tools to begin making jewelry. To begin with, it’s enough to have the basic set of jewelers’ tools and gradually add new ones. Once you have the basics, you can spring into action in the fascinating world of jewelry making. There are lots of techniques for jewelry making and each one of them uses specific tools to undertake the job.
Understand that the tools are there to ease your work and to avoid straining your body. Take care of your tools, they are your best work-mates, More importantly, take care of your hands and eyes. Let the tools do the hard work. Leave your hands only for guiding the tools and for feeling your work.
Your greatest tools are your hands.This marvelous creation is a complex mechanism of bones, tendons and muscles. Your hands possess fantastic mobility and strength, they can reach, grasp, disengage, move, turn, twist and caress. But they’re also delicate and sometimes we can abuse them.Your hands and eyes are your major working capital, take good care of them. You can always repair or change a tool but your hands and eyes are irreplaceable. In the world of craft we use tools for their mechanical advantage. Jewelers’ tools aid our hands when we need force and motion. All tools work by following a determined metalsmithing technique. Following Untrachts (1985) approach, we show you the set of basic tools by the function they do.
You will become a skilled metalsmith when you acquire control and effectiveness using your tools and when you master your hand movements to operate them. Always store your tools in a dry place.
To keep up to date with new articles about jewelry tools and supplies, subscribe to my newsletter: Jewelers Xpress. It is a FREE monthly e-zine with all the latest info posted on Design-Unique-Handcrafted-Jewelry.com Feel free to tell me about a subject you would like to see published in Jewelers Xpress and I will do my best to write it. Jewelers best friend: holding toolsThey allow you to have one or both hands free so you can use them in some other task. Examples of holding tools are: clamps, hand vises, ring clamp, pliers, tongs, and the flexible shaft among others. Vises come in many sizes and qualities. Some models are fixed and can be rotated. Strong vises come with jaws of greater width and weigh quite allot. It is wise to protect the jaws with leather or rubber. When you mount your vise make sure it is securely in place. Important Basics: bending tools
Jeweler’s pliers come in many different forms easily identifiable by their jaw shape. Each jaw shape is meant for a specific job. There most common are round-nose pliers, chain-nose pliers, flat-nose pliers, needle-nose pliers and parallel pliers. Smithing Extra Force: striking toolsBy increasing the leverage and percussion force, hammers help us to strike metal. They are used to “move” the metal. Among striking tools we find chasing hammer, ball-peen hammer, forging hammer, goldsmith’s hammer and riveting hammer. The chasing hammer for example is made of polished steel and has two faces with different shapes. One of the faces is smooth and slightly convex; you may use it for striking and planishing. The other end is ball-shaped; use it for riveting and peening. Always rub the face of each hammer with a cloth before striking the metal to clean any scale. Mallets made out of treated rawhide are used to bend metal without stretching or marring it. Receiving force: indirect striking tools
These include tools which are in turn hit by a hammer to do the work. Altough these tools are designed to resist considerable use and abuse, always anneal very well the metal.The tool that receives the strike is meant to slowly shape the metal. They include chisels and punches used in repoussage, stamping, dapping and riveting.
Jewelers Buddy: compression toolsThere are two kinds. A “passive” compression tool is that used as a resisting surface against which the work is placed while it receives the force of a striking tool. Some are surface blocks, dapping blocks, dies, anvils, stakes and mandrels. The best bench blocks are made out of tool steel that has been grounded and polished. Tapered mandrels come in a wide variety of forms and shapes, the most common being the bezel, ring and bracelet mandrel. “Active” compression tools apply pressure to the work. They are burnishers, bezel setters, prong pushers and the popular rolling mill. All Time Favorites: cutting toolsThey perform the act of cutting by means of sharp points, teeth or edges. Some cutting tools are at first sharp but wear out and must be replaced, while others can be resharpened. Some of these tools include hand shears, hand saw, cut-off rings, ring cutters, and disc punches. Care must be taken to stretch the life of cutting tools. Avoid storing them near chemicals, flux and escaping fumes from any solution or substance.
Saw blades are made of steel and steel alloys. They cut in the downward stroke and may mark the work in its upward stroke. When you are sawing, keep lubricating the saw blade with beeswax to ease your work and that of the tool. Cut in swift long strokes, use the whole extent of the saw blade, in rythmic, calm movements. Timeless Tools: metal removal toolsThese tools work by rotational penetration producing a perforation; linear shaving where chips of metal are shaved off and reciprocal and rotational abrasion when layers of metal are removed. They include hand drills, reamers, chisels, screw plate dies and taps, sand papers, files, stone seating burs and rotational burs.
They come in different profiles, the most popular being flat, barrette, half round and square. Files cut on their upward stroke.
Helpful: Torsion toolsBasically used to do the act of twisting or turning by the exertion of a lateral force that turns one part while the other is held fast. Examples of these are screwdrivers and wrenches. Always in a Jewelers Studio: rotary-motion power tools
These tools revolve freely and indefinitely in the same direction as long as power is provided. The most popular is the flexible shaft, but there are also: Power shears, Polishing motors, Bench drills, and Lathes among others.
Motor tools have low torque while flex shafts run in high torque. Torque is a rotational or angular force that causes a change in a rotational motion. The higher the torque the higher the angular force and thus better performance when you apply pressure to it. If you use motor tools, they will sooner or later stop or slow down when perforating a thick metal for example. You now have a first set of tools of the trade.
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Significant jewelry designs are accomplished by a combination of imagination and skill. 
Hand files are made from strong tool steel alloy and come in different “cut” size which can range from coarse to really smooth. 
