Misc tools - jewelry tools series

Top left is a mini anvil. I use it to flatten and smooth out small pieces. This is good for rings since it has the area places where I can fit the rings on to work on it.


The one to the right of the anvil is a hand vise. That will hold any small thing you want that you need to grip to work on. Just push the wedge into the hand vise and it will hold any small thing you have that you need to file, drill, sand, etc... You can see a small found object at the end of the vise.


The wood block with circular indentations is called a dapping block. Buy metal if you can afford it. It will last longer. I am already getting dinks from hammering the metal in the wood ones I have. You start out with a piece of circular sheet metal. Use a hammer to hammer the edges first, then insert it into the largest circle and hammer the metal disc into a circular form. I will get into what type of hammer to use later. If you want more of a circle, then go to the next smaller sized circle. Always work from the largest circle to the smallest one you want. That will help to shape your sheet metal and not distort it. BTW, I sand the edges before I get started. You will get some interesting textures depending on what the head of the hammer is like. I have two copper examples above the dapping block to show you. You can click on the pict to make the pict bigger.

At the bottom is an Irwin clamp. I use it to clamp things down that I don't want to move. It is a quick and easy thing to use. It comes in several sizes. My dh bought be a big, honking one. The small one works well for me. I use the big honking one to clamp down books and stuff like that. The hand lever - black and blue at the bottom is what releases the clamp. You clamp them both together to raise the clamp up and down until it gets hold of what you want to clamp down on the table. You pump the little lever over the hand lever to tighten the clamp. It is so easy when I don't need my Dremel clamp.