Jewelry Making Basics | Jewelry Making Tools You Absolutely Need To Start Metalsmithing!

[Music] hey guys i'm lucy walker and i am a tallaholic but today i want to save you from those perils and i want to share with you the tools that i think will help you get started on your metalsmithing journey because i want to let you in on a little secret here you don't need all the tools but lucy what are you saying in all honesty when you're just starting out it's best not to have all the tools in fact there's two solid benefits to it the first it really forces us to master the tools that we have and second of all it helps make us much better problem solvers so hey we've got a problem we don't know how to fix it we don't have the right tools what do we do we sit we look at the tools that we've got and we see if there's any way we can make those work honestly it really will make you a much better jeweler in the long run so i went just a little bit crazy in making you a downloadable handout full of the tools that i would personally buy if i was setting up a new studio today i mean it's pages and pages long you really don't need all the tools on there but i just wanted to put down what i would like to have but also explain the reasons why so that you guys can use it for a reference to but before we dig into that what i want to do is show you some of the absolute basics the things that i think most people will probably want when they're just starting out and of course all the details on the tools we're going to look at right now are also in that downloadable handout so let's take a look at some of my favorite tools okay safety first and one of the most important things that you're going to need are safety glasses you really need to protect your eyes and you can buy these from absolutely any hardware store so there's no excuse not to have a pair and on the subject of safe day you're also going to want a face mask now these n95s from rio grande are absolutely ideal because you can use them when soldering too these guys are not just for dust okay safety out of the way what you're gonna need for sure is a good solid place to work together with a bench pin which is actually where most of a jeweler's work is done i've got a grs benchmate system which comes with a bench pin that slots on and off this plate at the front of my bench the benchmate itself is an absolutely fantastic work holding system and it's especially useful for stone setting it's a tool that i highly recommend but it is super pricey so maybe not right now if you do want to buy one my advice would be to go for the benchmate encore qc stone setter kit but right now if you're just starting out you can definitely get by without all this fancy stuff it's a really nice to have but it's not a must-have a simple clip-on bench pin such as this one right here together with a sturdy work surface is really all you need you can just unscrew this slot it onto your bench tighten it up and you are ready to go and thankfully these are cheapest chips another thing you will most definitely need is a jeweler's saw frame but oh my god there are so many to choose from and i know this can be a little overwhelming we have all the modern expensive fancy frames such as this the haymaker from lion punch forge we have the beautiful green lion which is absolutely gorgeous to look at the lightweight new concept and the more traditional swiss frame which i do really love but when you're just starting out aside from the swiss frame these are all super pricey options and they won't make you any better at sawing if i'm perfectly honest i personally am a super fan of the simple yet effective german sore frame they're cheap they do the job well and they're available in various throat depths now generally i'll stick with the 2.5 and the 4 inch frames for pretty much everything i do i'll only use the larger frame when absolutely necessary as the bigger the frame the harder they are to control speaking of sewing you are definitely going to need some form of lubrication to keep your saw strokes nice and smooth so far so cheap right but the one thing that i really do want you to splurge on and this will make a huge difference i promise is saw blades so something like pike nano from pepe laser gold from rio hercules basically any blades that cost around 24 bucks for a gross of blades and a gross by the way is 144 they will be decent quality just stick with german or swiss another thing that jewelers can't live without hammers and again there are so many to choose from but hey the first thing you'll probably want to purchase is a chasing hammer and you can get a hold of these pretty damn cheap like 10 bucks but as you can see with the cheaper hammers the faces do get pretty dinged up after a while which isn't ideal now i don't recommend buying this to start out with as it's a hammer that costs close to 200 bucks but this is my beautiful handmade chasing hammer from metalsmithingtools.com and this is super high quality you can see the difference because despite me using this almost every day there isn't a single mark on it the steel is super hard another couple of hammers you'll probably want to get a hold of are a ballpeen hammer and a cross peen hammer and then personally i just love this texturizing hammer too now these three are all from frets hammers which is a really nice mid-quality range of hammers they will last you and you might also want a planishing hammer but to be honest for the most part i'll just use my chasing hammer which has got a really nice flat face to it to do any planishing work aside from hammers you're gonna need mallets too now you can get a plastic mallet like this or a rawhide mallet which are both fantastic and do the job well but my ultimate favorite are dead blow mallets they have steel shot on the inside so they really do pack a punch whatever it is you're whacking alrighty let's take a look at pliers again did you ever realize there are so many pairs of pliers in the world and these are just a few of my favorites so first of all we've got your standard chain nose or snipe nose pliers which come with reasonably narrow tips just take my word for it here you definitely need at least one pair of these secondly we've got flat nose pliers which are very similar to the chain nose but they have much wider and flatter tips and not exactly pliers these are snips now when you buy a pair of snips i want to make sure you buy flush cutters and that way you can get a really nice flat edge to your wire when you cut it another couple of pairs of pliers that i love are half round and flat pliers and round and flat pliers these guys have one jaw that is shaped either round or half round and the other jaw is flat and this makes them ideal for forming metal without putting excess marks on it i use these pliers all the time in my classes now most players work using a simple hinge system to open which means the jaws don't open parallel but they open in hey a pizza shape and this can sometimes be a bit of a pain in the ass say for that reason i absolutely love my morn brand parallel pliers here i've got a flat nose and a chain nose pair which i find are totally replaceable for holding work and also for manipulating heavier gauge metal there are cheaper brand parallel pliers available but a hundred and ten percent in my opinion the mourn brand players are definitely worth the extra money and finally we have bow closing or ring bending pliers same thing just a different name i've got two pairs here a small one which i use most often for forming heavy bezels and also a larger pair which i use for rings now i've modified these with a little leather on the outside jaw of the pliers just to help make sure i don't leave any tool marks on my metal when i use them okay one thing that jewelers really must have is some form of rotary tool and in my opinion you can't be a flex shaft for that also known as a pendant motor you can get by with a dremel or a similar drill but they're a lot more limited in their capabilities i also get asked a lot about micro motors and micro motors are fantastic but if you want to get something that's powerful enough to use with jewelry rather than just nails you're gonna need to spend a lot more than you would on a flex shaft now a great motor to start out with is the fordham sr which has forward and reverse options but believe me most of the time you'll want it in a forward motion especially when you're using drills or burs these guys they won't cut in reverse but for polishing or for using rubber wheels and the like if you're left a using it in reverse can be really helpful now you're going to have to choose a handpiece to go with your motor and there are lots of options available for rotary hand pieces but i just want to show you the two most common for now and the first which is my favorite is the fordham h20 quick change handpiece this is exceptionally comfortable to use and it's really quick to change out the bits the lever on the side opens the jaws of the chuck and you simply slot in your drills or burs and then flip the lever closed now i use my quick change hand piece 99 of the time but the other option is the standard fordham h30 handpiece which is a lot chunkier and has a choke system to open and close the jaws and this can be just a little time consuming but it does mean that you can use tools with different sized shanks but hey what are these tools you speak of lucy okay let's take a look at some of the flex shaft tools you'll want to get started first of all you're definitely going to need drill bits and my favorite brand for all things drills and burs is definitely bush now just an fyi here though all the tools that i'm going to show you for the flex shaft have those 32 shanks which means the shank measures 3 30 seconds of an inch or 2.38 millimeters so they can be used with the quick change handpiece when it comes to drill bits you'll probably want to start out with a few different sizes but i'd say eighty percent of the time i use a one millimeter drill bit but if you're going to do a lot of really detailed piercing work you'll probably want to get something around say 0.7 millimeters too now just be careful with the tiny drill bits i only use them when absolutely necessary they do break much easier now aside from drill bits you're probably going to want to invest in a few bursts to start out with but at this stage we're not considering things needed for stone setting just for everyday metalsmithing now one of the most useful burs is the simple bulbar and these are available in a massive variety of sizes at 0.1 millimeter increments for ball bears my advice would be to buy a little selection box of different sizes to start out with from say maybe 0.5 millimeters to 3 millimeters or so just to experiment and find out which you'll use the most bulbas aren't overly expensive and to be honest i use them all the time and they do play a big part in our classes even when not using them for stone setting another handy bird to get hold of to start out with is a cup burr in 1.2 millimeters very precise i'm just showing you a huge bur here so you can see what they actually look like the teeth are on the inside of the bur now why 1.2 millimeters well these are super useful when making ear wires 100 you will want to get hold of some sandpaper rolls now totally you can make these yourselves but i am lazy and buy mine already done i like to have these in 240 grit 600 and 1000 grit but basically if you're going to be making rings you are definitely going to be needing these this one's just a nice to have here and these are 3m radial discs i get these in pretty much every single grit available i say nice to have for these as they are expensive as hell a finishing product i can't live without everflex rubber wheels now these come in a set with barrel knife edge and bullet shaped wheels that are available in coarse medium fine and extra fine grits i really can't live without the whole set but you can also buy these individually if you find you use some of them more than others and finally for flex shaft accessories you'll definitely want to have some polishing buffs the two that i use most often are my cylindrical felt buff which is fantastic for polishing the inside of rings and also my standard muslin buff which i use regularly when polishing pretty much anything else with my pendant motor and of course to go with these you're going to need some form of polishing compounds my general favorite all-round is zam and that's simply because it's safe to use on most coloured stones now just on a little side note here when polishing or using rubber wheels with the flex shaft there are some bloody nasty chemicals in these things that you do not want to be breathing in so i want you to promise me you're going to wear a mask when you're using any abrasives or polishing compounds at your desk capisce okay so back to hand tools and jewelers definitely need files and this is one thing that i wouldn't skimp on quality files last so there are three different types well size is a file actually that i use most often and so these are the ones i recommend to start out with hand files which are the largest needle files which are these small guys here and escapement files which are these super tiny ones hand files are an absolute must and the two that i recommend starting out with and these guys i use pretty much 99 of the time are the flat hand file in a zero cup which is quite coarse now actually i hear you now you might be wondering why i don't have handles on my files i prefer to use mine without and that is just personal preference most jewelers will put a handle on them but i have never used them and i'm not about to start now okay so i've also got here a half round hand file and that's also a zero cut but to be honest you could go for a zero cut or a number two cut for your hand files whichever you prefer i just like the coarse ones because it gets the job done quicker just back to the flat hand file for one second i want you to take a look at the narrow sides of the file and what you'll notice is that one side has teeth so you can file with that but then the other small side has no teeth and that is called a safety edge and it's the case with most of the files that i've come across they do usually have that safety edge alrighty onto the needle files and if you want you can absolutely buy a set of these in either six or twelve but these are the four that i use most often and these are all a number two cup the two that i absolutely can't live without are the half round and the beret so the barrette file has just one flat file inside and the other side is shaped like a little roof with no teeth at all so it's super narrow but strong then i've got a round file and finally a square file like i said there are many more shape files available but these are pretty much the must-haves and finally onto escapement files and again i find that 99 of the time i use just two but this time in a number four cup which is even finer so the ones that i go to generally my half round and my barrette and these guys are perfect for cleaning up detailed piercing work and even more random hand tools but let's start out with two things that you're definitely going to need to have if you're intending on making rings first of all you absolutely must have a steel ring mandrel and you can buy these with or without the sizes marked on there i prefer them with the sizes marked on there but whatever floats your boat and second you're going to need a ring sizing set not quite as important if you're not doing custom made but imperative if you are and hey to be honest the cheapest chips anyway so let's just get one now this here is a steel block again imperative i don't know a single jeweler who doesn't have one of these and then if you want to work to any degree of accuracy i highly recommend a set of dividers i can't live without mine this is again something i wouldn't scrimp on another super handy tool is a pin vise which is fantastic for holding wire if you're going to buy one of these though make sure to get a four jaw version and that way you're getting as many options as possible when it comes to the size of the wire it can hold alrighty on to big metal balls also known as a dapping set so the balls are dapping punches and the little cubes are dapping blocks and these are super handy to have and thankfully they are available at a variety of price ranges but as always you do get what you pay for and for our final stop on this little tool journey let's take a look at the very basics you'll want to consider for soldering so pretty much some of the most important tools you'll own first of all unless you want to set fire to your workbench which you don't by the way you're going to need a heat proof pad under no circumstances do you want to put your actual soldering surfaces directly on your bench and speaking of soldering surfaces my favorites are hard compressed charcoal i don't like the soft stuff personally as it's super messy it does have its benefits it just doesn't float my boat i also really love my solder right pad from rio grande you're also going to need something to hold your work as you solder and for that i love my cheapest chips cross-locking tweezers to pick up the solder you're also going to need tweezers and or a soldering pick my personal favorite is the soldering pick and this one is a titanium one from pepe tools but there are cases where i do need those tweezers too you're also gonna need some flux solder will not flow without flux and i prefer to use handy flux which is a white paste like substance and i hope this goes without saying but obviously you're going to need a torch as a bare minimum you can get by for smaller projects with a butane torch such as this one here but eventually you'll probably want to upgrade to a more powerful torch such as the smith little torch here which i prefer to use with propane and oxygen and finally the last piece of kit you're going to need pickle and some way to keep that pickle warm i personally use citric acid in a slow cook-up but there are lots of other options available alrighty so that just about covers the basics the absolute necessities that i would personally want if i was just starting out on my jewelry making journey i hope it's been super helpful for you too but i want you to promise me one thing you're really going to think about what it is that you want to make and whether the tools that you buy will help on that journey it's all about what you're going to be making alrighty guys catch you next time [Music]

Channel: Lucy Walker Jewellery

Views: 93,186

Rating: 4.9391389 out of 5

Keywords: lucy walker jewellery, lucy walker, online jewellery, jewellery making, online jewellery making, how to make jewellery, how to make jewellery at home, make jewellery at home, jewellery design, jewelry making tools, jewelry making studio setup, jewelry making bench, what tools to buy to make jewelry, metalsmithing tools, silversmithing tools, goldsmith tools, jewelry tool stores, best tools to make jewelry, best jewellers tools, best brands of jewelry tools

Id: j4_HVFAG3ho

Length: 21min 51sec (1311 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 28 2020