Tools Lesson 1
Chain Nose or Needle Nose Pliers
Trying to rank tools as the most important to the least important is not
even possible. It would like trying to figure out what is more important
to a car, the engine, brakes or steering wheel! But I am going to start
with the needle nose or chain nose pliers. It is most definitely a tool
you must have.
The name is not important. When I started silversmithing we just called
them needle nose pliers. Now they call them chain nose pliers. If you
call them needle nose some snobbish goldsmith will ask you if you are
working on a car! And you know how I do not want to upset those people!
Any way the pliers I recommend are featured at:
http://www.frii.com/~dnorris/toolchainnose.html
Photo 1
I recommend a 4 or 5 inch pliers. For most projects a four inch pliers
in fine. For heavy pieces and wire like 2 to 6 gauge you may want a 5
inch around.
Photo 2
The most important feature of this pliers is that it must have smooth
jaws with no teeth. (For my wire sculptures I use 4 inch needle nose
pliers with teeth for gripping the twisted wire.) Teeth would scratch
your silver.
Photos 3, 4 and 5
If your pliers come with springs to hold it open, break off the springs!
That is right I do not want you to have spring loaded pliers. It is
simply a marketing tool. Why in the world would you want to work against
a spring, every time you use the pliers. Nature gave us gravity, it
works every time to open the pliers naturally, with out any effort on
you part. Get rid of those springs! I teach silversmithing so that you
can have fun working for 16 hours a day if you want. I am an artist,
some times I fall asleep at my bench! Not because I need to, I love
silversmithing! What I do not like is if my fingers or wrists hurt after
several hours of working. I am not going to add to the work by having to
work against the spring. Now if they could make a pliers that would
spring in with no effort to open them back up, that would be a good
pair.
Photo 6
Really think about it, take a pair that has no springs, hold them as you
normally hold a pair of pliers. Close them and let loose. They will
automatically open! They do not need a spring!
Photo 7
These pliers should come to a narrow blunt point, but not a real sharp
point. Do not purchase those long narrow nose pliers, they are worthless
for anything in silversmithing.
This pair of pliers is all I use for 95% of all my silversmithing. You
do not need a bunch of pliers. I only recommend two others: the round
nose pliers and the new wire wrappers pliers (They have one round jaw
and one "U" shaped jaw and are great for making small perfect rings.)
Cost
You can spend as little as $3.00 and up to $35.00 for this tool! If you
are just starting and short of cash, the $3.00 one will make you a lot
of money before you need to toss them. I really recommend a pair in the
range of $7.00 to $8.00, especially if someone else might use them. The
pair in the photo cost me $8.00 and I love them. I have purchased about
30 pairs in the last two years for my class rooms. The handles stay on,
the jaws stay parallel, and I have not had any break. They will rust
though, and all of them do.
There is no need to buy those $30.00 and up pliers. Unless you are just
a tool freak with more money than sense, or a mall jeweler and you want
some really pretty tools hanging up on your bench as an advertisement! I
would rather throw away a $7.00 pair every two to five years, than to
worry about taking care of a $35.00 pair. The way I use my tools, the
$35.00 pair would not last any longer! The $35.00 pair will not make any
better jewelry, not easier to use, will not last longer with out taking
really good care of them, they are just prettier!
Next week will talk about the round nose pliers.
Tools Lesson 2
Round Nose Pliers
Photos can be found at:
http://www.frii.com/~dnorris/turtlea.html
I seldom use round nose pliers, but when I do, there is no
other
substitute!
As you can see, I have removed the springs just as I always
do for the
reasons I explained in Lesson 1, Chain Nose Pliers. Photo 1
When purchasing round nose pliers you can spend any where
from $3.50 to
$35.00. The pliers in the photos cost me $7.50 from a local
supplier,
Naja, in Denver. These pliers are so seldom used that I do
not recommend
an expensive pair, but not the cheapest either. There are
some important
things to look at before purchasing a round nose pliers.
1. The noses should be the same size. Photo 2. The reason is
simple, if
they are different and if you use one jaw to bend the wire
around, then
want to make the exact same bend again, and do not use the
same jaw, you
not get the same bend.
2. The jaws come together all the way down the jaws with no
gaps. This
will make it possible to grip the metal evenly any where on
the jaws
that you wish. Photo 3
I only use round nose pliers for two things:
1. To make a curve in wire that I want to have the same or
nearly the
same diameter of the place on jaws that I choose. I rip the
the wire
once and only once and then use my free hand (the one not
holding the
round nose pliers) to bend the wire around the jaw. I do not
use the
round nose pliers to make larger curves. The reason is that
the round
jaws just to not have much gripping power. They are both
round and as
the jaws come in to contact the wire, only a small area of
each jaw
actually comes into contact with the metal. This causes more
scaring and
denting of the metal than most any other pliers. In order to
get a really
good grip on the metal, usually wire, you must put additional
pressure
on the pliers, because of the small amount of contact area.
This extra
pressure will result in nicks in the wire. The round surfaces
of the
jaws also make it easier for the wire to twist and slip to
the sides.
This causes blemishes and scraps in the wire.
An example of using the round nose pliers to make bends the
same size
as the jaws can be found at:
http://www.frii.com/~dnorris/bailing/bail11.jpg
This photo shows the first step in making a bail for a
pendant as
described in the Beginning Silversmithing Class.
http://www.frii.com/~dnorris/homesilversmithing.html
2. The best use I have found for round nose pliers is to make
very fast
jump rings. Jump rings that you are going to solder together
or on to
something, especially if you use nothing but hard solder, as
I and all
my students do.
To begin making a bunch of jump rings, place the end of any
wire you wish
( I use 18 gauge round wire a lot.) in to the jaws of the
round nose
pliers. I place the wire in to the jaws so that only a very
small
portion of the end of the wire shows on the outside of the
jaws. Grip
the wire only hard enough to hold it firmly. Photo 4
Using your free hand bend the wire around the bottom jaw,
using your
thumb to hold the wire firmly against the bottom jaw. Photo 5
Relax your grip, move the wire around the jaw and repeat the
process.
Photo 6
Keep repeating this process. This will make coil that travel
out toward
the end of the pliers. Keep the straight end of the wire in
the same
place on the jaws to make the same size rings. You can repeat
this
process until you run out of wire, because the coil just
continues to
travel off the ends of the pliers. Photo 7
Take the coil off the pliers. Photo 8
Just cut off the end of the first loop, it will be fairly
straight.
Photo 9
No I do not use a saw or some fancy jump ring maker for any
rings that I
am going to solder. If I was making a jump ring that was
going to be
just bent open and around something, them back closed again,
I would use
the old method of using a dowel rod. (Wrap the wire around
the size of
dowel you wish, and make a coil. Then cut through the dowel
rod and the
loops of the coil with a jeweler's saw. Cut just one side of
the coil if
you want jump rings. Cut both sides if you wish to make some
1/2 circle
design elements (Doodads!))
Just cut the rings off with wire cutters, you are going to
solder them
together with enough good hard solder so that you do not have
to worry
about having good squared ends. I promise! Photo 10
You will end up with a bunch of jump ring is half the time
you use any
other method. The jump rings will be open so that you can
slip it over
something. Photo 11
You can use your your chain nose pliers to flatten them if
you wish to
solder them shut and prepare them to solder to something as a
real
simple bail. I use them a lot on cheap castings for pendants.
Next week I will cover a fairly new pliers called a "Wire
Wrappers"
pliers. Even though I have not found a wire wrapper that even
knew about
them. They are even more useful for making perfect small
circles.
