Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Right Tools for the Job

Pliers are the most basic tools for any jewelry artisan. We all have our favorites. We know which ones we reach for most often. Some feel better in our hands than others. Some are for very specific uses.

My collection of pliers has slowly grown over the past 12 years. When I invested in my cherished Lindstroms, they quickly became my "go to" tools. Even my flush cutters are Lindstrom (yellow handled, all the way to the left). I have another pair of flush cutters made by Swanstrom that are much more heavy duty (not pictured for some reason) and just don't feel as good in my hand.

Besides my stand-by pliers, I have special wire looping pliers, bent nose pliers, brass jaw pliers (they leave no marks!), bail forming pliers, split ring pliers (totally unnecessary investment), crimping pliers and a few others.



There are no additional pliers currently on my wish list, so if you know of any that I might like, please leave me a comment!

1 comment:

Brandi Hussey said...

I adore the Razor Flush Cutter Pliers from Tronex. They cut sooo cleanly that I save them for when I'm fusing fine silver. If I had another $60 to blow, I'd buy a second pair to be my everyday cutters.