5 More Ways to Use Jewelry Tools

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Did you know you can make all the joins in a ring without soldering? John Heusler not only made one ring that way, he made two. He shows you how to do it in the new Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist Summer 2021. This issue has a special focus on gem and jewelry tools, equipment, and supplies.

ABOVE: Welded Only turquoise and silver rings by John F. Heusler, Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist Summer 2021; photo: Jim Lawson

1. Apply a Setting with Stone in Place

“A torch will destroy most gemstones, but you can safely use a pulse arc welder to apply a setting anywhere on a project with the stone in place. The welder gives a strong burst of energy to melt metals together but cools quickly, keeping heat-sensitive stones cool enough during the process,” John explains.

2. Keep Your Hands Safe While Steadying Your Work

Besides being simple, inexpensive, and long-lasting, the ring clamp is one of Jeff Fulkerson’s favorite jewelry tools because it’s so useful. “You’ll find that using a ring clamp makes holding your piece much easier. It also saves wear and tear on your fingers because they’ll be away from the piece. If you slip, you won’t hit your fingers. And as the piece heats up from the filing, your fingers are insulated by the ring clamp.”

3. Improve Line and Fit —Be Sure Your File Is the One You Need

The relative fineness or coarseness of a file’s cut is assigned a number. The higher the number, the finer the cut because it has more teeth per inch. Sounds straightforward, but you need to know more than just that. “As it happens,” Noël tells us, “#2 files from different manufacturers are not actually the same, making it a good idea to have files from, for example, Grobet, Friedrich Dick, and/or Vallorbe. The two files shown here are both #2, same size, and same shape, but the finer one is from Grobet and the coarser one is from Friedrich Dick.”

4. Add Design Flair Fast with Jewelry Tools

Bill Fretz has been designing and crafting jewelry and and jewelry tools for decades. His latest tool idea stems from a challenge he set himself as a student at the School for American Craftsmen back in 1969. “My senior thesis piece was a neck­lace of this [ball and joint] design made of ster­ling and ebony. Each of the 26 cones was formed on a small, tapered horn T-stake — it couldn’t have been more labor-intensive,” he says. “The exercise taught me a lot about forming, and being in business over the years has since taught me the importance of making jewelry in a timely manner. When our shop needed to make multiple concave tube spacers, we were challenged to develop a simple tool to speed up the task.”

5. Celebrate Your Art: Jewelry Tools in Design

Roger Halas is a jewelry artist, a sci-fi and fantasy buff, and something of a philosopher and poet. Here’s his introduction to his blacksmith’s bracelet project, celebrating the jewelry tools of metal art and those who use them:

“As an article of fashion, jewelry is never meant to stay in one place. It travels by courier, enhancing the human form while often reflecting the preferences of the individual. This is even truer when jewelry conveys a specific theme, such as an element of nature, a symbol of faith, a word of encour­agement — or its wearer’s vocation.

“In many respects we are what we do. And if what we ‘do’ is art, especially metal art, the blacksmith’s tools are not so different from the jeweler’s. Here, we will create a hinged, movable bracelet centered around three jewelry tools that are essential to the metalsmith’s workshop: the hammer, the anvil, and — of course — that remarkable tool we call fire.”

Merle White is Editor-in-Chief of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.

Find All These Jewelry Tools and More in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist Summer 2021: The Tool Issue!