My father taught me that in order to do anything well, you have to have the right tools. He also taught me to buy the best tools you can afford.
At SyZyGy Jewelry, it all starts with the gemstones, either beads we have purchased, cabochons we have cut or carvings that Bernd has made. But at the bottom of it all, it's the stones that inspire us.
We began with a used Frantom that we bought for cheap. It included a used trim saw that was in much better shape than the grinding/polishing machine. Bernd did a lot of work on the Frantom to get in running well. The Frantom has two corundum grinding wheels and three sanding/polishing belts.
Water is used as a coolant and lubricant for cutting stones and the Frantom uses a lot of it, throwing it all over. SyZyGy Jewelry lives in Central Arizona at about 5,000 feet of elevation. In winter, the basement shop can get quite chilly and all that water was a problem. So, as soon as it was affordable, we bought a Diamond Pacific Genie. That changed everything.
Now we could work through the winter without our hands freezing into immobility. The Diamond Pacific Genie has six diamond coated, six inch wheels and uses a minimal amount of water. The wheels don't have to be "dressed" (brought back to true) periodically and the whole process from start to finish is much shorter. It's a dream to use.
We haven't used that good old Frantom in quite a while. We are thinking that it's time to pass it along to someone else who is just getting interested in making cabochons. We are keeping the trim saw. All it needed was a new blade.
I really wanted to learn to solder silver and Bernd thought that he should learn basic bead stringing techniques. So he showed me how to solder jump rings closed and I taught him to string beads. It all took off from there.
I started with a micro torch fueled with butane. The kind you use to caramelize sugar on fancy desserts. And I made a lot of great pendants with it. But the micro torch severely limited the size of my projects. Before too long, we found ourselves buying a new torch. We purchased a Prest-O-Lite torch from Grobet with four sizes of tips. It requires a single acetylene tank. And I thought the Diamond Pacific Genie changed everything!. The Prest-O-Lite torch has set me free. So maybe size matters.
Not long after the torch, I realized that to make larger pendants, I would have to use heavier gauges of sterling silver sheet than I had been using. Twenty-four gauge is about as heavy as I can cut with hand shears. I really don't like doing a lot of sawing, so I knew a bench shear was in the near future.
I went on-line to Contenti and ordered a 4 3/4" bench shear. The day it arrived was very exciting. I love tools (thank my father for that) and this one is really great. Not only does it cut sheet silver slick as a whistle, it doesn't cause the sheet to curl as you're cutting it as the hand shears will.
Obviously, this isn't all you need. There are all the different types of pliers, files, vices, cutters, bench pins, mandrels, tweezers, punches and scribes that you need. Not to mention a Foredom flexible shaft tool. This one we inherited from Bernd's father. Hey, I'm not snobbish about hand-me-downs.
We also have a polishing machine. It was a gift from a very generous man named George Koldoff. -Dianne
If there are any issues of jewelry making that you would like to discuss with us, please feel free to send us an e-mail.
Also, I have written a short article titled, "Silversmithing: Tools of the Trade", that may be viewed at www.searchwarp.com by typing Dianne Lehmann in the search box. |
