Metal Forming tools

[CJ57]

Found your use of darning mushrooms and dolly pegs interesting. Going to put these on my list as i don't want to buy a doming block at the moment. Thanks

You can adapt all sorts of household items when you don't have the money Sheena. After I'd written it I wasn't sure anyone would know what those two items were though, who darns now! Mine was my grans. The wooden rolling pin is quite useful for bangles although not quite wide enough but once you get your eye in it does the job for a while.

[enigma]

Thanks China

[enigma]

You can adapt all sorts of household items when you don't have the money Sheena. After I'd written it I wasn't sure anyone would know what those two items were though, who darns now! Mine was my grans. The wooden rolling pin is quite useful for bangles although not quite wide enough but once you get your eye in it does the job for a while.

Ive been making necklets lately and can be found wandering around the house searching for something to shape it on

[ps_bond]

Making tools is a good thing, not simply from a time vs money perspective. The tool will do what you want, how you want.
One of mine is an end-grain bit of 4x4" pine with a dent bashed into the end with a ball pein hammer. It sees use in sinking bowl forms in particular - and I can use steel and not worry unduly about an expensive tool getting marked up.

[china]

I get almost as much satisfaction from making the tools as I do using them, wooden doming punches for me are a breeze I am a Cabinet maker and wood turner by trade, I use a ball turner on my metal lathe to make the steel versions
whenever I am am able I will find a substitute that will suffice in the place of a bought item, this can be a problem because I never throw anything away

[Molek]

Wow! Thank you for all the response! I don't even know where to begin! Thank you Peter for the advise! I will leave the blacksmith anvil out of my shopping list. Definitely will look at the quality of the materials the tools are made of. I will also save to get a better quality rolling mill, as even the cheaper ones are not exactly 'cheap' and I'd hate to end up with a tool that I'm not entirely happy with.

James - Thank you for drawing my attention to the hammers, and thank you for posting the photos - that's very helpful. Also beautiful work! I will be looking into expanding my collection of hammers now. I will also look into getting a lead block - that's the first time I heard of it.

[Molek]

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for the reply! I agree I could definitely use more education! The only problem attending a course, or just simply relying on a college workshop is its very limited availability - 3 hours a week, is not quite enough to familiarise yourself with everything. I have had a studio for about 1.5 year now where I have been making simple jewellery, simple soldering ect. and as I'm slowly progressing with that I'm just adding to the repertoire. I know that I will be buying something that I may not need ever again, but I guess it's part of a learning curve. I do heed your advice not to be hot headed and get crazy amount of expensive tools though! Best,
Monika

[Molek]

Hi Caroline,

I do have the basics - pliers, needle files hand files, mallets, steel block, pendant motor etc. I am trying to move in from making a small scale, detailed jewellery to larger, flowing forms.

[CJ57]

I have all that you mentioned in your original post except the anvil, I have never used one since college. The drawplate the same and only needed them because we were required to make our own tubing. I do a lot of fold form and cuffs etc and have bought tools specific to the jobs I want to undertake. My pride and joy is a Durston rolling mill as I try to buy the best I can but I'm not sure I use it as often as I should to merit the cost but they are the best if you can afford one. I would also prefer wooden doming punches and if I'd had that skill I would have made my own. Durston have just produced a set of amazingly beautiful punches but I may be tempted to buy their set of 3 large ones:/

[Dennis]

If you just want to make some outsized domes Caroline, I think something like this woukld do: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Pc-Extr...AAAOSwo4pYW7si

My walking sticks were a one off craze, so i could never justify anything dearer. Dennis.