Top 10 Jewelry Making Tools INFOGRAPHIC - CRATEX

Tools are the only thing in common for hobby and professional jewelers. No matter if you design and make (or repair and clean) jewelry that costs $20 or $2000, you'll need quality jewelry making tools you can rely on.

Tools for making jewelry can be divided in many categories, below are the basic ones. These are necessary to get the job done:

• Benches and bench blocks
• Drills, burs and bits
• Soldering equipment
• Gravers
• Hammers
• Pliers and tweezers
• Abrasives for finishing, polishing or cleaning jewelry
• Flex shaft machines & handpieces
• Safety wear
• Measuring tools
• Magnifiers and lamps, etc.

Jewelers with high reputation and years of experience have tools that allow them to work on much more complex projects, like casting and mold making tools, pneumatic engravers, welding machines etc. They can be rather pricey, but luckily aren’t necessary for beginners or hobby jewelers. 

       

Jewelers Workbenches

A bench with a drawer is an essential part of every jeweler's shop. It can be made as a left or right-hand version. Benches can be made of metal, but most of them are made of solid wood. Every bench has arm rests, pull-out tray with shelves and utility drawers. It can be stationary and portable. Many are hand-crafted and can be customized to look antique and vintage. Addition to workbench can be the top organizer with multiple slots and bins.

Price can depend on the bench size. Price range starts from $200 for hobby workbenches to even $5000 for professional double workbenches made from massive oak. Brand to take into consideration is John Frei.

Gravers & Handles

For hand engraving you'll need steel and carbide gravers with handle. They are perfect for gold, silver, wood and gemstones. There are several shapes you'll need to have if working on gem setting, shading, or stippling – flat, round, oval, square etc. Most of them are suitable for work on flat and convex surfaces. Price per one graver is around $10. You could save a few bucks if buy graver kit with a handle. Handles are shaped as a mushroom, pear and oval. They are made of wood and will cost you around $3.

Soldering Supplies

Soldering is a commonly used technique when making jewelry. Equipment necessary to get the job done is: soldering board, solder, flux, tweezers and torches. Jewelry soldering kits can be found for as low as $140 and they include all the essential tools for basic soldering.

Pliers

Most used hand tools in jewelry making are pliers. Depending on your work scope, there are different types of pliers that you'll need. Standard pliers can be with chain-nose, curved chain-nose, flat-nose, needle-nose and round nose. Specialty forming pliers are: mandrel pliers, banding pliers, dimple pliers, shape pliers. Specialty task plies come as crimping, cutting, loop-closing, gem setting etc. Check this guide to be familiar with all pliers used for making jewelry.

There is a great number of cutters as well. They are not expensive and can be found in many online jewelry supply stores. If you have a few extra bucks, you can buy plier and a cutter kit.

Hammers

Like other metalsmiths, jewelers also use hammers. They are basically one of the cheapest tools in jewelry workshop. You can find a brass head jewelry hammer for $5. Choose a hammer depending on your workpiece and project demands. Different types are: raising hammers, forming hammers, chasing, cross pen, and many other. Jewelry hammers are usually smaller than the hammers you usually find at hardware store. If you are in doubt which mallet or hammer to use, read this article.

Jewelry Polishing Abrasives

If you are involved in polishing or jewelry cleaning, you will need abrasive wheels, points and cones for jewelry finishing. These abrasives are usually mounted on a lathe or flex shaft machine, and can easily remove scratches from used jewelry. Abrasives that are most commonly used are rubber abrasives shaped as small wheels up to 1 inch in diameter, or points for hard-to-reach areas or corners. Different types of grits are available - from coarse to extra fine. Since they are heat resistant, they can be used on a rotary handpiece with high RPM. Brand you should consider is CRATEX.   

Drills & Burs

If you are serious about jewelry making you need to invest in a high quality/high speed set of drills and burs in different sizes and shapes. Drills can be used on drilling devices like presses and fixtures or mounted on Dremel or other hand rotary tools. Mostly used burs are: round, wheel, cone, cup, knife-edge bur, inverted cone and other.

Drilling holes in pearls, glass, gem stones or precious material can be a delicate task and requires not only drilling tools, but a steady hand and good skills. Manufacturers you should check out are Gesswein, Tungsten, Fox, Edenta Swiss, Foredom, Ikohe, Grobet etc.  

Flex Shaft Machines & Handpieces

Flex shaft machines are used for sending, grinding, polishing, engraving, decorative work and cutting. They are often the most expensive piece in a jewelry tool collection. Price range goes from $199 to even $2000. Operating speed, noise level, power and torque delivery are determining factors when buying a flex shaft and handpiece. Most of them are foot controlled.  

If you are looking to buy one, check out models from these manufacturers: Grobet, Foredom, CRATEX and Swiss Hammer.

Measuring Tools, Safety Gear and More

It is obvious why jewelry makers need measuring tools, like ring sizing gauge, stone diamond size gauge, ruler, digital micrometer.

Magnifying tools like eye loupes, bench magnifiers or microscopes are also important and used every day for many purposes. Magnifiers are not expensive (around $30), but a microscope can cost you more than $200, so think about whether you even need one before buying. Brands that you can trust are: Bausch and Lomb, Coddington, GemOro, Hastings and others.

Most used safety wear are glasses and cotton finger guards. Order them online at jewelry supply stores. Price for finger guards is around $10, and glasses can be found for around $20.