What is your favorite & least favorite part of metal smithing?

[Truffle & Podge]

Admin and pricing dilemmas not included, Which little bits do you really look forward to? Is it the designing or flash of inspiration maybe? The very first cut or snip of a new project? piercing? soldering? or what about the final finishing touches? And on the other end of the spectrum what makes you quake and shudder or just generally sigh aloud?

For me i do love to pierce if i can take time and try to get it flowing nicely and as a fashion graduate i adore sketching out ideas. But my brazing torch send shivers up my spine (though i hope with practice it will get less scary) and i would say sanding through the grades can be tedious but there's that silver lining of watching the shine slowly appear (fiddly crevices are still a pain in the proverbial Grrrr!)

What floats your boat and grinds your gears guys?
Tasha
X

[medusa]

Design and polishing.

Everything in between is a nightmare.

[Goldsmith]

The best part is getting an invoice paid on time and in full. And I also like piercing and shaping metals.

James

[caroleallen]

Having spent most of the day making a simple hinged piece, I'd say hinges are my most hated thing. I like design but hate polishing. When hinges aren't involved, I love soldering as I'm a bit of a pyromaniac.

[mizgeorge]

Like Carole, hate polishing, so I spend a lot of time avoiding it. Radial discs are my best friends

Love designing. Love soldering. Quite like hinges. HATE box clasps (well I do today anyway...)

[Truffle & Podge]

radial discs are in my wish list!
X

[Dennis]

I hate filing and soon reach for my rotary tools.

I hate hammering, so I'm not much of a smith and I use my ring stretcher, ring bender and my hydraulic press whenever I can.

I like having all the components made and then assembling them for the finished piece.

But most of all I enjoy seeing the effect of someone wearing it. Dennis.

[solitarysmagick]

I HATE designing things.. and by that I mean drawing out ideas first ( I really cannot draw!). I much prefer to just get a piece of metal and see what I end up with given a vague idea of what I'm after (ie a ring, a necklace, bracelet etc). Obviously with commissions you can't really avoid this though as I always send customers a picture to approve first (thankfully they have been understanding of my lack of artistic merit!) My favourite things are hammering, and doing that final polish after all the hard work has been done.. so many times I've had pieces that don't look much until that last polish and everything seems to magically change and the piece looks so different