Jewelers who turn precious metals and stones from ingots into the lining and produce jewelry using linings need some jewelry tools. Jewelers’ materials are indispensable for workshops in processes such as the meticulous processing of precious metals such as gold and silver, shaping precious jewelry, and mounting stones. So what are those jewelry tools?
Jewelry tools include; the basic tools used in jewelry production such as a workbench, cylinder, weighing tools, torch, drill bits, vise, motor mill, steamer, polishing machine, mandrel, hammers, and pliers; flies and sandpapers; brushes, drums, and measuring tools such as micrometer and digital calipers; as well as trimming tools. In this article, I will cover the jewelry tools, the daily equipment used by jewelers.
Jewelry Tools: Basic Tools Used in Jewelry Production
- Stand
It is a workbench prepared in different sizes and shapes, made of different materials according to the characteristics of the work performed, on which one or more people can work.
Right in the middle of it is a hand-sized piece of wood called a wedge. This part, which comes in front of the employee, is hollow inward in the form of a half-moon. It has a drawer at the bottom to collect spilled (gold, silver) dust and debris. The jeweler does the work of files and saws on this board.
- Cylinder
They are machines that are used to crush wire and plates with the help of rollers rotating in the opposite direction of each other and bringing them to the desired size. It can be examined into two parts, namely primer and wire cylinders.
Primer Cylinders: These are the cylinders used for crushing the sheets to measure.
Wire (corrugated) Cylinders: These are the rollers used to enter the desired size by pulling the wires with the help of the rounds on them.
- Weighing Instruments
Some objects are classified and separated by their weight, or they are valued by their weight.
- Torch
A torch is a tool used as an igniter in the process of heating metal and welding in jewelry.
- Knurl Making Tool
It is a tool made by the masters in order to give the strings knurling. It consists of two gears, one big and the other small, which are rotated with the help of a lever.
- Drill Bits
Drilling employs a drill consisting of a head-mounted on a simple steel bar and a spring device to rotate it by weight. A hand drill is used to wind the wires in tying and joining works. The lance point is used in soft materials and non-thick materials. It is preferred in pearl drilling operations.
Helical drills: These bits differ according to the hardness of the material, the work done, and the depth of the hole. It is produced with thick and thin handles. Its materials are carbon steel or tool steel.
Some drill bits are the router bits of different profiles that carve, chip, and straighten the workpieces.
Florentine tips: These are the tips used for surface treatments on jewelry. Certain parts of the surface may need to be matted in order for the patterns or motifs to be evident in jewelry. Florentine tips are used in the matting process.
- Ball Drill
It is the first drilling apparatus used in the early years of the jewelry profession. This drill, which has a vertical axis, is very easy to use. The so-called globe weight makes drilling easier. There is a drill bit and slot at the bottom. The two ends of the rope from the upper part of the shaft passing through the center of the sphere are connected to the hanging arm ends on the sphere. The arm is made one or two turns on the shaft and the rope is wound on the shaft.
With this entanglement, the hanging arm moves upwards. When the ascending arm is pushed down rapidly on the shaft axis, the shaft starts to rotate and drilling is performed with the help of the cutting tip at the end of the shaft. Mechanical hand drills are human-powered drills. With the help of gears attached to its body, it transmits the rotational movement it receives from the handle to the chuck. It is generally used for wire and ring winding processes in jewelry.
- Vise
Vises, which enable the metal to be compressed and processed, which cannot be held by hand or pliers due to rotation and slipping during production, are used as an aid in processes such as rolling, stretching, filing, setting, hammering, and penciling. There are two types of vices: bench vise and hand vise.
- Motor Milling
They are machines that work with electrical energy and perform drilling. There are two types as 15000 or 25000 rpm. With the help of the equipment attached to the spiral shaft tip, the cutting tips are rotated along their own axis and the drilling process is performed with the help of these tips.
In order to prolong the life of the milling cutter, the vertical position should be maintained as much as possible during use, the axis should be prevented from wobbling, the starting point should be hit with the point before drilling, where possible, and wax should be used to cool the drill.
- Steamer Machine
It is used to dry the materials that come without cleaning. Water is poured into the funnel on it and the boiler is heated to a certain degree. It is dried by opening the valve in the front and holding bangs under the pressurized hot air.
- Polishing Machine
It is a tool with polishing liquid inside the rotating cauldron, which is used for polishing the parts of the processed products where hand tools do not enter. There are also types on the same site but in different forms.
- Mandrel
Conical Bench tools made of iron and wood, used in making rings and bracelets.
- Hammers
It is used for cutting the boards with a punch and making them spherical by adding depth. Slightly tapping on the countersunk and creating a full hemisphere. It is produced in various grams and shapes according to the use of jewelry. It has a wide range of uses, from rough forging processes in thinning and shaping metal to fine inlaying and riveting processes.
Hammers take names such as straightening, blowing, collecting, rivets, table, polishing. The mallets, which are generally used in the enlargement of jewelry such as rings and bracelets in cases where trimming and machines cannot work, are made of materials such as wood and rubber.
- Pliers and Crow Noses
They are small hand tools used for drawing, bending, and shaping metal in the form of wire and sheet. The pliers, which are specially shaped according to their usage areas, are among the primary tools of the workbench, as well as the types such as symmetrical crescent, one side half-moon, flat and round-rimmed. They are hand tools used to shape the wire properly.
- Rock Wool
They are special stones with an asbestos mixture that are welded on and not affected by the fire. It protects the workbench from the flame emanating from the torch, prevents the heat from dissipating, and facilitates the welding work. It can be of different sizes. It is usually 15 to 25 cm in size.
- Fretsaws
Sawing is one of the basic operations used in jewelry. The jigsaws are divided into two parts, the saw arm, and the jigsaw blade. Saw arms are designed in two ways, namely fixed and adjustable. Fixed-arm saws are used by beginners, while adjustable saw-arms are used by professional jewelers.
Fretsaw Blade: Standard sizes; however, the tooth structures are ordered from largest to smallest. In order to explain the tooth sizes, it is necessary to examine the chart below.
When speaking fret numbers, it is said depending on the value of 0. So 2/0, 5/0 big gears and 0/5, 0/3, 0/2 small gears, etc. Here, the fret with the smallest tooth structure is the number 0/6 bristle.
- Pairs
They are tong-like tools that allow us to hold the parts to be joined, hot and small workpieces as we want during welding. Besides straight pairs, there are spring pairs that are also used in embroidery. Pairs are fire-resistant, steel-made sets. In addition, there are pairs with auxiliary apparatus produced in different ways to hold the workpieces in the desired position during welding.
- Measurement Moulds
They are long and flat iron mandrels used for measuring the roof of filigree in different microns and sizes. Roof wire is wrapped around the flat iron mandrels to form metal pieces in the desired number and equal length.
- Scissors
Lining scissors are used in the manual cutting of sheet metal, and other scissors are used in the manual cutting of wires, rings, and areas where lining scissors do not approach. Scissors are made of tool steel, their ends are hardened and sharpened at certain angles. In addition to hand scissors, lever scissors or guillotine shears are used for cutting larger and thicker pieces.
- Anvil
It is used during the production of the product, flattening, bending twisting, etc. It is a tool used to perform transactions.
- Corrugated Iron
They are rectangular prism-shaped apparatus with longitudinal half-round channels on one surface. In the channels on the corrugated iron, they are arranged in different sizes and from the largest to the smallest.
- Knob
Hardwood mallets are used in the shaping process. A wooden mallet is used to prevent damage to the shaper staples. When a hammer is used, the back parts of the staples are damaged and swelling occurs over time.
Jewelry Tools: Files and Sandpapers
The file consists of two parts in appearance; the first one is a straight section with a sharpened, threaded, file to be fixed to a wooden handle. The other is a single or double toothed part, the tail, and goes into the handle. Such files are called handle files. As the hardness of the materials to be leveled increases, fine files are preferred because the number of teeth that will come into contact with the surface increases.
The file can be single row or double row toothed. Although the tail is down in vertically oriented files, the first tooth extends eastward from the lower left to the upper right. The second one goes from top right to bottom left. The teeth differ in length, length, and width. Tooth length is the number of teeth per inch or one centimeter. Files are divided into coarse, coarse, semi-coarse, fine, and very fine classes according to their tooth shape.
As the hardness of the material increases, finer toothed files should be used. This is because the contact surface increases during filing. The vertical section of the file is called the shape of the file. It can be fixed or narrow towards the tip. In addition to the types of cross-sections of the files, there are also varieties in terms of teeth. Files according to their sections are described below:
- Flat File
It has a rectangular cross-section. Outer plane surfaces are filed with a flat-file.
- Three Corner File
It is an equilateral triangle cross-section. Narrow-angle inner corners and holes are filed with a tri-corner file.
- Square File
It has a square section. Rectangular holes and channels are filed with a square file.
- Half Round File
Cutting it is like cutting a circle. Concave surfaces are filed with a half-round file.
- Round File
It is a circular section. Round holes and concave surfaces are filed with a round file.
- Blade Edge File
It has a narrow triangular cross-section. Sharp inner corners are filed with a knife-edge file.
- Trapeze File
It has a trapezoidal cross-section.
Files are divided into two according to their teeth:
- Single-Threaded Files
The teeth are arranged in a single row on the file. Single-tooth files are used to remove chips from soft materials such as aluminum.
- Cross Threaded Files
Their teeth are arranged in two diagonal rows on the file. Thus, the cutting effect is increased in proportion to the increase in the number of teeth of the file. Cross-toothed files are mostly used in jewelry.
- Abrasives and Their Features
It is the common name of the process and materials used to remove file traces after leveling. It is necessary to carefully clean the traces formed on the surface after the filing process, without damaging the model and without destroying the details. For this reason, they are papers with abrasive properties that are used for cleaning the surfaces in order to lose traces of the file and prepare the ground for the polish before the pieces are given to the polish immediately after the filing process. The material is formed by gluing powdered or crystalline glass to glued paper or cloth.
Sandpapers are formed by sticking sand grains on paper with special glue. Emery stones are also obtained by gluing sand grains together. Sandpaper papers are numbered according to the size of their grains (360–500). The number suitable for the leveling process is selected and the surface of the part is cleaned.
Sandpaper wrapped around a file is widely used in jewelry. The sandpaper is cut into rectangles of the desired width wrapped around the file and pasted. The aim is to create a smooth and uninterrupted plane around the file. When one side is worn, it is passed to the other side. A similar process can also be done by wrapping sandpaper on various apparatus attached to the market.
Jewelry Tools: Brushes, Drums, and Measuring Tools
- Brushes
In case the place to be welded is a narrow surface (limited area), it is the tool used to apply special mixtures to the surface in order to distribute the weld in the desired narrow area. It can be of different sizes.
- Vibrating Drum
It is the machine used for cleaning the product after all processes are completed. It has a mechanism that can clean the places that cannot be cleaned manually. As auxiliary material, steel balls of various sizes are poured into the drum, and cleaning is done with the help of these balls.
- Polishing Engine
Generally, the tool in which the polishing process is used is called a polishing engine. In filigree embroidery and the production of all kinds of products, processes such as polishing, leveling, and giving texture to the product are carried out. Vacuum types should be preferred in order not to spread the excesses thrown from the mouth of the engine during the process.
- Press
It is used to cut spherical or circular parts of various diameters. It has two opposing heads, male and female. Circular pieces are easily cut from the gold or silver plate placed between the heads by pressing the handle.
- Wire brush
It is a tool used to scrape the rough surface formed on the finished product after it comes out of the acid. Generally, brass bristles, wooden or plastic handles are preferred.
- Charnel
It is a tool that enables the semi-finished product to be cut into smooth and equal lengths.
- Micrometer
Micrometers are also measurement and control instruments. These measuring instruments work according to the mechanically controlled screw-nut system. Measurement accuracy is higher than calipers. The measurement accuracy is 0.01 – 0.001 mm in metric micrometers, and 0.001 – 0.0001 inch in finger micrometers.
Different measuring fields have been created in micrometers. The smallest measuring area is 0 – 25 mm, and diameters of up to 500 mm can be measured at intervals of 25 mm (0 – 25, 25 – 50, 50 – 75, 75 – 100………… .475 – 500mm). The reason for this is to ensure that the movable jaw that makes the measurement is short in length. Thus, measuring stretching, heat, etc. It is prevented from being affected by external factors. However, in micrometers that measure with large capacity, the measuring ranges increase by floating (800-900-1000). For example, a 0-25 mm micrometer is used to measure 19 mm, and a 25-50 mm micrometer is used to measure 34 mm.
- Calipers
It is an important measuring instrument used in manufacturing workshops and mold workshops. They are used to measure distances of external surfaces, hole diameters, depths, steps, widths between surfaces, etc.
- Digital Calipers
Digital calipers have measuring jaws similar to vernier calipers. However, a digital display is used for measuring. When the jaws are positioned to measure the part, the measurement is read directly from the digital screen.
Jewelry Tools: Tools Used in the Trimming Process
When it comes to trimming, the first tool that comes to mind is the shaping set. It consists of a cube or flat socket and socket punches. Special spherical head staples are called heştek staples, and special apparatuses with concave (empty) hemispheres are called shaping pads. A mallet is also used to apply force to the shapings. Shaping pads are divided into two parts.
Cube: These are special jeweler’s apparatuses in the form of square prisms, made of steel, with one or more concave hemispheres of various diameters on each surface, and surface hardened against deterioration due to impacts.
Flat: These are special jeweler’s apparatus in the form of rectangular prisms, made of cast or steel, with concave hemispheres of different diameters on one surface and surface hardened against deterioration.
Staples: Staples shaped with special shapes to be given to the plates (spherical) are mostly used in jewelry work. Punches are generally formed by giving a spherical shape to the end of the cylindrical shafts.
Staples have a staple number on them. This number indicates the diameter of the sphere. These punches are used both for making half balls and for shaping cylindrical (long) sheets.
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