Mini Tools - Worth Plying and Buying?

Some silversmithing tools need to be hefty, to have some weight to them, to allow them to do the job they need to do. Others are able to combine some strength with deceptive delicacy.

I have a lot of pliers, all around 10 or 11 centimetres (4 or 5 inches) long, all collected piecemeal and utilised with varying degrees of success - many are used regularly but some languish in a "spare toolbox" and are tools of last resort.

A while ago I treated myself to a set of mini pliers, wrapped up tidily in their own case. I was intrigued to find out what quality they were and if they served any real purpose other than, well, being small and so more convenient to store.




The pliers are indeed mini, measuring around 8 cm (3 inches) each, and this decrease in size is felt in the handle more than elsewhere. But the heads of the pliers (round-, needle-, and flat-nosed and one side cutter) are all as well-formed as any other plier in a comparable (budget, in this case) price range and, while obviously a little smaller than a typical version, are still usable and effective.

The handles are well-shaped but their smaller length makes it harder to use them as comfortably as typically-sized pliers - I find with the latter much of my hand works the tool, whereas with the smaller version that action is more confined to the first two fingers.




However, for quick fixes and repairs, for times when you've packed everything away but really need a tool that's easy to lay your hands on, then this set is neat and ideal. The pliers also well-sized for working with very small items. For prolonged work I would find them a little tiring and fiddly and probably wouldn't choose them over larger sized tools, if they were easily available.

If you're just starting out or if you fancy smaller tools for more delicate work, then mini pliers may well be worth trying. Buying a set of pliers is a handy way to get the most used tools for simple jewellery making and these are usable, portable, and useful. I've made earrings and necklaces with this set and found the pliers and cutter excellent with very delicate sterling silver wire and tiny gemstones.

I'm not one to have superfluous tools ("spare toolbox" aside) but useful tools, even if they're near copies of other tools, will find a place in my main toolbox every time.

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Please note: this post contains no affiliate links and I have no connection with any manufacturer or retailer of jewellery tools.

Broken tools...

The collection of tools that I use for jewellery making has been built up over years on a need-to-have basis. It's also been built up quite cheaply. But I've grown used to my mismatched pliers and wire cutters and have my favourites and others that are consigned to a box for emergency use only. Or when someone wants to borrow one of my tools for a non-jewellery task (this does happen, although thankfully not frequently - I keep my tools carefully to make sure they do their best for the silver).

It's proved quite handy that most of them have different coloured handles (I know which pair I'm reaching for by colour) rather than having a matching set and while I've wondered at times what the difference really is between a £5 pair of pliers and a £50 pair, I've not worried too much because the tools I have work and I'm (mostly) happy with them.

So it was with some consternation that I discovered my trusty wire cutters (yellow, bought circa 2005 in Sheffield, I believe, for around £4) were broken. A quick survey of the damage led me to the conclusion that they should still work for the time being, albeit with a slightly different style of action, and so I wasn't made to either explore my stash of emergency-only tools or dash to the local hardware shop for a rushed replacement.

But it did make me wonder what those jewellers with expensive tools would say the advantages are over cheaper ones. Are they worth the extra expensive? What is the difference? Should I indulge in a branded set of wire cutters when I do replace mine?

Please do leave a comment if you've any advice or even if you just know how it feels when a trusty tool, of whatever monetary value, passes its sell-by date...

New Tools for a New Season

Shiny new tools are one of the strangest things you develop a fascination for when you fall in love with making metal jewellery…The arrival of tool catalogues was always received with joy at my silversmithing classes, along with much disappointment if we didn’t have enough for everyone…

Not that tools are particularly indulgent. It may well seem that way when you find a bargain set of pliers on a market stall for a couple of quid, and yet a top of the range pair can easily cost well over fifty pounds. And I’ve been told that you really can notice the difference, both in terms of the quality of the tool and also the way it treats your work.

My own pliers are, on the whole, a motley collection assembled piecemeal over the years (and all have different coloured handles, which is such an unlooked-for bonus) - I have used high quality tools and can verify that the difference often isn’t in how damaged your bank balance looks but in the marks, intentional and not, that are left on the precious metals you're working with…

But I also have some super-cheap tools that really are super. A set of reverse angle pliers, one straight and one angled, are truly excellent and have done me great service for many years now - they came into my hands for around a pound each. I’ll happily seek out some of a similar calibre (and price) when these finally succumb to time but, looking at them, it won’t be for a while yet.

My latest tools aren’t not of the expensive kind but are decent quality and do a wonderful job. Plus, they were gifts, which makes them even sweeter.

The first is a set of two tiny mandrels, perfect for rounding up jump-rings ranging from pretty small to, well, far smaller than would fit on a typical ring mandrel.



Having used a variety of ‘home-made’ mandrels for such tasks in the past, it feels rather indulgent – and yet so much easier – to now have a metal tool that can tolerate a little more hammering than a leaky Biro.

The second tool is another mandrel, this one most certainly plastic (and so needing of slightly more careful treatment) but also made for the job and, so far, pretty sturdy.


The Beadsmith multi-mandrel consists of a handle and four interchangeable mandrel heads – in round, oval, square and triangular shapes. So far, oval and round have got the most use, but I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of softly curving triangles and hope the mandrel for this will prove helpful in future experimentations.

These are the first new tools I've had in a while now and I've been pleased at how they seem to expand not only what I can do (and the ease I can do with it) but also ideas and inspirations seem to flow more easily...anyone else experience that, and does anyone have ideas for tools that I should add to my wish-list?

{NB. The link to the Beadmsith mandrel from this post is an Amazon  UK affiliate link. This means that if you click through to the mandrel and then go on to buy it on Amazon, the nice people who run the company will give me money. From their own stash! And it will cost you nothing!! If I ever earn enough to qualify for payment, the money will go to my very needy rolling machine fund which currently contains only copper coins. For more info on my affiliate links, take a look at the bottom of my about page. Ta muchly.}

Jewellery benches, squeaky chairs, and how to sit

Photo from Kotomi on Flickr

The perfect mental image of summer seems full of endless time, to be filled on light-filled evenings with jewellery making, blogging, finding new ideas and inspiration... the reality is a little different.

My lack of productivity on the jewellery making front, and the knock-on effect that has had on my inclination to blog about it (harder to do when you're not making much!) is, to a large part, down to the previously mentioned dodgy shoulder. Late last year a slight niggle turned into an awful couple of days of discomfort which has now settled down into a generalised state of unease. My lower back is a bit dodgy too. This isn't a great combinations.

It has brought into sharp focus for me the importance of having the right type of seating and table to work at. Yes, I know it's boring, and health-and-safety-ish, but when the lack of the right chair makes making hard, then you know that, sometimes, health-and-safety might just have a point. Sometimes...

For quite a while now (oh, okay, since forever), my jewellery making place has been an ergonomic nightmare. My work table is, well, a table, an old gateleg table my sister gave me when she last moved. Before that, my work table was another old table, a kitchen one with extendable sides. Neither of these look anything like an ideal silversmithing workbench. My chair is even worse, a hard plastic not-very-height-adjustable swivel chair, with awkward arms and an awful squeak when it moves. I put a cushion or blanket on it to make it more comfortable but it only does so much.

This really isn't sounding good, is it.

Even before my shoulder and back both decided they didn't like me anymore, I did not find either chair or table comfortable to work with. I just put up with them because they were what I had and, for now, that's what I'm still doing. This means making jewellery is slow, necessitating many more rests and breaks and back stretches and less full-on immersion in what I'm doing. I suspect that even with a bells and whistles workbench and a wonderfully designed chair, I'd still need the breaks. If it takes a long time to make a back and shoulder wonky then it takes a long time for them to heal.

I do know how I should be sitting, however, and where I should be sitting. It should be at a tall table or on a low stool - ideally, when working with your hands, those hands should be up close to your face so you can see what you're doing without having to bend, and not down closer to your lap, where your neck and shoulders will have to curl so your head can get close to your work. It's kind of logical and yet it's also easy to miss and/or ignore.

On my long list of silver smithing hopes and dreams is a workbench - you can buy a jeweller's bench, even a space saving one, but it's equally possible to make one (and try this one too, although you have to subscribe (for free) to access it) or to adapt one from a table - either of these latter ways means you can custom design the bench to fit you, so it's the right height and has space for all your tools.

As for me, without a nifty custom-made workbench creating is a slower process than I'd like at the moment but, thankfully, I've felt some inspiration returning to my addled jewellery mind, and by spending small pockets of time (literally a few minutes) at the workbench I've been able to make a couple of birthday gifts (a impending birthday is often a great destroyer of creative blocks of any kind, I've found!).

Look, no silver...

PS. If you want to see a few more examples of workbenches, then check out the Ganoskin Bench Exchange on the subject -  59 pages of bench photos and endless inspiration!

Love this very simple, but wonderfully effective, description of how to DIY a jeweller's bench!

Not sure how practical this is for full-on smithing but if you're short of space, and have someone to store your larger tools, then this article and this tutorial look fascinating...

Also, take a look at this Pinterest page - it's not all jewellery benches, or even benchs, but is still worth browsing through.

Do share your own working space - does it work for you, or is it just tolerable? We can but dream of perfect crafting areas...