Favourite and unusual tools

[ShinyLauren]

I always wondered how they got those silver centres in the beads!

My tools that I use all the time are my piercing saw (Knew Concepts one), my Foredom pendant motor, my polishing wheel and my parallel pliers. Special mention goes to my magnetic polisher for just being ace!

[Aurarius]

There's often a rational basis for tool mania: you figure that having that particular tool you haven't yet got will make your life easier. Sometimes it doesn't, but I think you can learn to judge fairly reliably before you buy it whether a tool is going to be a waste of money.

I think the reverse situation - of doing without a tool that may actually be of benefit to you - is a worse error than indiscriminate tool mania. In my other job I made do without several tools in the early years thinking that I could get by quite happily without them. When I did eventually justify buying the tools, I discovered that I'd been spending inordinate amounts of time and physical effort, as well as earning less money than I might have done, because of my guarded definition of what were or weren't essential tools.

ETA: forgot to say that my favourite tool is probably my Foredom Micromotor - it makes so many tasks easy and is incomparably better than the Dremel multitool that it replaced.

[Nick martin]

My favourites are the tools that come with a bit of a learning curve I suppose... I.E. files of various shapes, pliers, piercing saw, and my Smiths Torch.

Having said that, I have just got back into the habit of making items are quite a break!

Cheers,

Nick

[jayneharrison]

There's a lot of love for the Knew Concepts saw so I think that's one thing I definitely need to investigate, particularly as piercing is not my strong point!

[Tabby66]

Grief James.......that is an impressive collection of saw frames.......love that picture

I must admit that I enjoy using a piercing saw, I can happily saw for hours and over the years I have built up quite a collection of saw frames. As for tools that I have made, then soldering clamps must rate high, at first I made them from stainless steel sheet and now I use titanium strips.

Attachment 7965

Attachment 7966


James

I find answering your question really difficult......definitely my piercing saw (along with my radio!), then really, I think it is my basics, since I can create so much with them.....files, buff stick, sievert, rolling mill, bench polisher.....definitely with menzerna polish.......I'm also with Lauren in loving my magnetic polisher!!

[Goldsmith]

I know most of the forum members make jewellery, please bear in mind that I am not and have never been a jeweller. I am a goldsmith and my tools are for smithing. I have a lot of saw frames that I have collected over the years in my early days in this trade I would be piercing all day for months, hence I actually wore out the blade grips on saw frames and in those days it was quite cheap to buy a new saw frame, if I remember correctly a standard German saw frame was 10/- or 50p in today's money.

I also have a large collection of hammers, some that I inherited from the craftsmen who taught me and some hammers that I bought cheap and changed their head shape to suit smithing jobs.

These are cheap standard hammers that I have reshaped to suit jobs.


This is my hammer collection.


James

[BarryM]

You must be related to Thor! More hammers than an amateur dramatic group.

[Goldsmith]

Another useful tool I use in my workshop are my lead blocks, which I use for hammering the shapes of my flower petals and leaves on. I have posted this before so sorry if I am repeating myself and you have seen this all before. I melt my own blocks into an ingot mold with my Sievert torch, the good thing is that when they are full of dents they can be re melted into a fresh block. If you do use lead blocks just make sure you clean any lead specks off the precious metals before annealling.



James

[CJ57]

I'm with Jill, I'm not sure I have a favourite as all my basic tools are what I need to create what I do.
I did buy a disc cutter as I use quite a lot of discs, domes and washers and it's like night and day, there is no cleaning up and filing off to do so in that respect its the right tool for the job and saves a lot of time. I did look at a heart cutter fleetingly and then wonder how it would be useful unless that's all you make!
I don't use my Durston Rolling mill as much as I should but when I do it's the best and I fell in love with their domed planishing set more recently. Although much bigger than I thought as it was impossible to get sizes of the 14 stakes from Durston, it has endless uses and I've stopped just looking at its shininess and started using it with lots of ideas in my head for utilising every shape.
I wouldn't be without my Dustmaster polisher although wish it was much smaller in my small workshop. It's possible to get more compact units now but I wouldn't be without the beast. I'm am now realising that a Foredom micromotor might actually be quite helpful having always thought not. Like Mark says you finally give in and realise that life suddenly becomes much easier and new ways of working are opened up to you. I think I can just make room on my bench for it

[jayneharrison]

I'm loving this thread and it's definitely given me loads of food for thought - thanks for all your responses!