Battle of the tools: Part I

When I buy tools. Apart from what they are made of, eg. stainless steel or hardened tool steel, the other two things that I look for is a) size of the pliers, b) the grip of the pliers and c) the precision of the jaws.

Let's talk about the size first.

Since these are tools used to make such dainty jewellery pieces, I would rather for them to be smaller in size. The following picture is a comparison in sizes of the tools that I have.



No.(1) is the nylon jaw pliers that I purchased from Findingbeads4u.com.au recently. You can see how 'roughly' made it is compared to the other pliers. This is is the biggest dissapointment.

No.(2) is the longest one among them all. Despite its length, I think it is still pretty acceptable since you can see that it is pretty em, what should be the word used here,.... 'dainty'?

No.(3) is the stainless steel pliers I got early this year. As you can see, it's the smallest one among them all.

No.(4) would be the standard size of most of the budget range pliers that is sold in the market. Size wise, it's on the average side. Not too big nor too small.

No.(5) is the one that I got from Beading.com.my. Well, it isn't the smallest one of them all but it is still relatively small compared to the rest. I'm quite satisfied with the size.

Next, on the grip.

Now, the grip is important because you would want comfort while working on your jewellery pieces. Granted, you migh be working long hours bending and twisting on the wires. So, it is important that the pliers give you a comfortable grip. Pliers that makes you exert too much pressure might cause your fingers to cramp and it just defeat the purpose of jewellery making if you should suffer from discomfort even for the least, during the process. Jewellery making should be an enjoyable process, and therapeutic even for me when I am truly living for the moment, creating beautiful pieces of adornment. LOL.... I know, a bit of new age talk here. :)

The hand grip should fit you comfortably in your palms to reduce hand strain.

That is the size of the grip. If you have ever noticed, the hand grip is usually wrapped with a layer of rubber. Then there's usually some metal plate placed inside the rubber which will act as some kind of stopper controlling the opening and closing of the plier jaws.

The following picture would be the kind of aforementioned mechanism which you would see in most of the pliers.


Notice how theres a 'bump' at the tip of the metal plate acting as a 'stopper' controlling the opening and closing of the jaws?


This is when the plier is relaxed. Jaws are open.


When the handles are pressed together. Jaws are closed.

But then and again. That is not the ONLY mechanism available for use to create that function.


This is the one from the new set of stainless steel ones that I got from Beading.com.my. As you can see from the picture, it's similar to the one above but without the 'bump'. Instead, both sides are similarly flat but with a bended curve at the tip, creating a similar effect.

Why is the rubber grip so important?

I'm not sure how many of you actually experienced this before but as the rubber grip loosen over time with use, it displaces the metal plate and this opening and closing of jaw becomes less effective to the point of annoying, well, for me at least it was so.


This is what I meant.

Other mechanism which in might opinion might be more effective in not affecting the workings of the opening and closing of the jaws might be these few.


This uses a spring board kinda mechanism. I've had these since I first started making jewelleries which brings to two years already. So far, they have never failed me.

The other that I've come accross is this.


This is from the set of stainless steel ones that I got early this year. I don't know how to explain this mechanism but to say that the control for the opening and closing mechanism of the jaw is not largely affected despite the loosening of the rubber grip.

But......


It nevertheless still irks me when the rubber grip slips!

By far, this is the one with the tightest rubber grip and the jaw mechanism works in a more 'mechanical' way.

I'm not very good with all these technical descriptions but I do however noticed these differences and would like to point them out. I don't know how large of a difference do they make but suffice to say that within the two years working on them to make jewelleries, I do feel a difference in grip.


This is a 3-step round nose plier from Bead Smith

The opening and closing of the jaws is not as tight as the rest and to some extent, even felt 'loose'. But that's in respects of the jaws opening and closing. Nevertheless, it doesn't anyhow affects the jaw grip. As far as the rubber grip is concerned, it is still very tight and I'm not sure if I'll be experiencing all the 'bumps and kinks' that I've experienced with the rest with this one since I don't see how the loosening of the rubber grip will affect the jaw grip.

The jaws for this one, by contrast, are closed when relaxed but you would need to use your finger to push in between the handles to open and close the jaws, since there is no metal plate 'stopper' or spring to control the jaw's opening and closing mechanism. Well, that is if you get what I'm trying to say here.

Finally, the precision.

This I'll talk about in the other parts of the 'battle' ;) when I have nothing better to do compare and contrast it among the tools that I have. Basically, when I talk about precision, I'm looking at the precision of the jaws. How precise of a job can they do. How close to the edge can it cut? How clean of a line can it cut? How narrow of a space can it reach? How small of a loop can it make?

Well, I'm a sucker for details. I bother myself with what would perhaps need not to be bothered with in the first place. And that's why I'm a sucker. LOL.....

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Postscripts:
One of my favourite piece of jewelry is the ring and I love to wear chunky rings especially the cluster ones with lots of small sparkling crystal beads. How can you resist the 'blings' in them? ;) Found this awesome tutorial to make this type of ring from Lytha Studios. I think they're pretty simple and straightforward. Pun intended. :)
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Tool freak

When I started making jewelry 2 years ago, I had no idea what a round nose plier was nor its significance in jewelry making.

From the tutorial I found in Jewelrymaking.allinfoabout.com on how to make a pair of pearl dangle chandelier earrings, that you need a round nose plier to make the loop to hang the dangles.

Now, the only plier that I ever know was the ones I learn in Living Skills class back in high school. The ones to cut wires with. What on earth was a round nose plier?! Well, no doubt they show pictures of what it look like and how to use it to form dangles, my concern was where on earth am I ever going to find it?

It's such a specialty tool, used mainly in jewelry making. Now, where am I gonna find it? From where I come from, there's not even McDonald's for breakfast, let alone round nose plier!

I searched eBay Malaysia as I do with most stuffs and the search returned with "0" result.

I asked around, and everyone around me was just as clueless as I am. I could have gone to KL and easily found it in a bead shop but since traveling was an issue, I had to scrap that idea. No, actually, I wouldn't have thought of that either. I was so isolated from the society that I didn't know that there were specialty bead shops around selling tools and materials and exorbitantly priced jewelry making classes. I didn't realize at that time that jewelry making was the trend nor the story that Bead Bar was taken over and name changed to Bead Box. Now, Bead Bar I do know. I remember they were very popular during my senior high, around 16 or 17. My friends like to go there to custom made their personalized jewelry where you can buy beads with alphabets and form your own name and make into necklaces and bracelets. I was never into because I thought they were rather expensive since the price was calculated on per bead basis. Yes, I admit. I was kinda frugal back then. Furthermore, I'm not so crazy about the idea of wearing your name and announcing it to the world everywhere you go. Well,.... that was then... )

Nevertheless, I went ahead anyway. I believe with a little creativity, I might still get the loop without the round nose plier. I don't believe that the round nose plier should be so integral to jewelry making that you cannot do without it.

So, I searched the toolbox in my house for whatever pliers that there might be which might assist me in my mission. I found a chain nose plier with a relatively narrow nose. Now, I thought that might just do the trick.

Happily and proudly, I went back to the working table. All set and ready to make my first piece of dangle chandelier earrings which I DO know is very much in vogue.

However, no matter how I twist, turn and bend, there was no way in the world I could form a loop.

I was defeated. Then I thought, looks like I might need a round nose plier after all despite me not prepared to admit the significance of it in jewelry making.

Coincidentally, my Aunt Ling i.e. my Zhi Kor was going to Ireland to visit her son and would make a stop in UK. Quickly, I contacted my Aunt LB i.e. my Sa Kor to get me the plier because I KNEW for sure it can be found overseas because most of the sites that I browse through were all based in overseas.

Even Sa Kor was just as clueless about the pliers but she told me she'll ask around. She did, because she has some friends who were in this line of business and got me the pliers.

I was happy and couldn't wait for Zhi Kor to be back with the pliers.

But guess what?

Since the pliers were only very small and handy to be carried around, she conveniently kept them inside her hand bag and checked into the airport.

Everyone knows that you can't take sharp objects on board plane. So, what happened? They got confiscated!

So once again..... I'm on my search for THE round nose plier. I went searching on eBay Malaysia again to try my luck.

And luck was definately on my side. I found a listing for round nose plier, selling at RM10. Without hesitating, I purchased it and wait for it to arrive.

The day when it arrived, I hurriedly went to try it out without waiting any more. The wait has been a long one and it's about time for it to come an end and me coming up with my first piece of jewelry.

At last, I made my first loop!! Finally!! And about time too. Then and there I KNEW that you need the right tools for the job just as you need the right man.

Since then, I have been turned into a tool freak. On a constant search for more specialized and better quality tools.

Why you ask? Because I believe that skills and workmanship aside, to tools for the craft is an artisan back bone and you never EVER messes with an artist tool. Never for the sake of convenience do you pick up a jewelry artist tool to work on anything other than jewelry and never do you touch an artist tool without their permission.

I don't know if anyone of you felt this way before but have you try borrowing your someone else's tool while working on your project? That even if they may be identical, the feel of grip will be different and can sometimes even hamper the smoothness of your work. Have you ever felt like this before?

Well, I haven't. :P I've been using my own tools all this while. It's my Sa Kor. When she comes back to Malaysia for holiday, she bring her beads along because it is only when she is back in Malaysia for the holidays that she has the time to make anything. When she is back in the UK, she is so busy with work that she won't even have time for anything else.

So, when she's back here in Malaysia making jewelry, she doesn't bring her tools back to reduce excess baggages. So, she borrowed mine and she always says this to me. Well, not bad enough as to hamper her work but enough for her to make the comment, "it just feels different" while working on her project.

Anyway, I'm digressing already but what I'm trying to say is well, tools are the like the vehicle which will take you places. It's like flying by first class as opposed to economy class on a 18 hours flight. Who do you think will arrive looking fresher? Alright, not a very good analogy there, but you catch my drift.

Since then I've been keeping myself aware of the tools that people do use in jewelry making. So, apart from beads and findings, tools are also one of the causes for the burnt hole in my pocket.

As I work more and more on the tools and jewelry making, it's the next step that I should want to use better quality tools. So, naturally, after working with the 'economy' version, I want to upgrade to stainless steel ones.

On a side note, even stainless steel isn't THE best. It's merely the less expensive choice. The best is to use hardened tool steel. They produces cleaner work i.e less marking on the wires and Lindstrom I read produces the best one around because they uses the hardest steel available and then they even make it harder through the process of salt quenching.

Don't ask me what salt quenching is. It's just something I read from the internet. But I do know that their tools are VERY expensive. They cost close to US$40 per piece! Try converting them to Ringgit..... Now, you know how expensive they are.

I'll save Lindstrom in my wish list. For now, stainless steel will do. I bought 2 actually. Early this year. A side cutter and a round nose plier off eBay Malaysia. Cost me RM50 including shipping. But still, I wasn't genuinely happy with them. Don't know but the grip just didn't feel right.

So, I was doing my surfing as usual last weekend and bump into the promotion site of Beading.com.my. They were having promotion on their stainless steel pliers due to overstock going for RM39 for a set of round nose, chain nose and cutter.

Needless to say, I got so excited and bought 2 sets! One for myself and another set for Sa Kor. In total, burnt RM83 from my pocket, including RM5 shipping.

I made the order on Sunday and the package was sent out on Monday.

On Tuesday, I received a 'heavily bandaged' package.




Doesn't these look like bandages to you? =P


Layers and layers.......


....of newspapers......



......of plastics.....



........AND plsatics........



MORE plastics!!



Tadah! My new set of stainless steel plier! =D



So cool.... they even got their name engraved on it.

Beading.com.my is having this promotion until 31st of August. Whilst stock lasts, of course. They've got another package with a serrated chain nose jaw instead of smooth one but it sure makes me wonder.... who uses a serrated jaw for jewelry making? Or should I ask, what are serrated jaws used for in jewelry making? Aren't they going to mark your wires? Hhhmmmm......

Head down here for more info. And yes, they do ship internationally, in case some of you might be wondering.

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Postscripts:
Well, postscripts haven't been appearing for a while now! :) Sorry, folks.... forgotten all about it! Alright, another site on basic jewelry making, and in my opinion, with more illustrations than other sites on the basics of jewelry making. Illustrated Jewelry Making and Beads Library. Well, it shouldn't be surprising because this site is linked to Findingbeads4u.com.au. That was how I found out about this site. Well, it made sense, doesn't it? It's easier to sell when your customers understand or have a better grasp of how to use what they buy. No? I sure am not going to buy things that I won't know how to use.
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I'm still making!!

[let's make this a more laid back post and as non-technical post as can be :)]

And so I haven't blog in a while already. It's kinda difficult actually to be juggling so many stuffs at the same time. I've got the kids at the kindy to attend to in the morning and tuition classes to teach in the afternoon. By the time I get back home, it's almost night already and all I wanted to do is only to kick back and relax.

But when I've got a blog and a blogshop to also take care of.....susah sikit la.

But what to do? Jewellery making is what makes me feel most alive and teaching is well,..... because I HAVE to.

My life will just not be the same anymore if I don't make jewellery. If you knew the story behind it, you will understand why it means so much to me. Maybe I'll tell the story one day but not today because it's going to be a very emo post and today's just not the day to be emo la. :P

Therefore, susah susah also, nak buat jugak i.e. as difficult as it is going to be, I still am going to do it. Why?

It's my life.....it's now or never. I ain't gonna live forever...... I just want to live when I'm alive....

LOL!! Yes, it's Bon Jovi. Not that I'm a big fan but I just like these few phrases. They couldn't be more true.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, for one. Making jewelleries. Ideas keep flashing by but I haven't got all the time I need to actually make them. By the time I do, I forgotten what it was. That's why it's good to have a notebook handy for you to jot the ideas down so that you don't forget.

The thing with me however, is, I've got too many things going on in my mind everyday due to the 101 thing that some, I have to do and some, I want to do that ideas and whatever not is more often than not in a clutter mess.

Nevertheless, I am still making jewellery and working on a couple of pieces. Some are already done but I need to photographed them. Wanted to do it today but it was raining the whole day today, so frustrating la. Yeah, I'm one of those un-savvy photographers who rely heavily on natural lighting. I know you can adjust the exposure value of the camera but still, natural lighting is nicer. Or maybe you've got tips and tricks that you'll like to share with me? *grins*

I've read about those DIY lightbox. It's relatively simple and feasible to do but the lighting cost sorta put me off a bit. It doesn't cost a lot and making the box itself is not difficult but you do need a lot of lighting from the top, left and right to eliminate the shadow and come up with a great picture, no? But that doesn't mean I'm giving up on the lightbox. Just not now. Maybe, later?

So, that's one.

I'm also working on revamping the Atelier. Kinda bored with the current layout and I'm thinking of integrating some cool css navigation menu. I think it's also a bit cluttered at the top. No wonder my mind is also so cluttered.

Also, ever since I started this blogshop thingy, it has even got me interested in some basic web designing and also graphic making with photoshop and even digital art!! You see, I can get hooked on anything as long as it involves creativity and designing capacity.

Well, that's me. JackJane of all trades but master of none. I'll tell you why I don't foresee myself to be a master of anything. I get bored quite easily. It's the same thing with jewellery making. When I've been using too much of crystal beads, I feel the need to switch to using pearls. When I feel I'm bored with pearls, I need to look for glass. The same goes for the method. When wirework bores me, I feel the need to switch to beadstitching and when that bores me, I feel like I need to change other medium like tigertail, memory wire or whatever that I have with me. Or worse, if the urge to use some different medium is so strong, I ended up buying new findings. Burns a hole in my pocket and adding to the storage for the satiety of my whims. The eccentric artist in me...... If I really do have to be a master of something, I'ld rather be the master of variety and versatility! LOL!

That's how I ended up with the storage of beads and findings I have with me and yet I still feel they are lacking. Oh well, enough is never enough I guess.

So, if you read my previous post, you should know about findingbeads4u.com stock liquidation sale.

Unsurprisingly, I get my some stuffs. These are what I got from them.


nylon jawed pliers, 4mm bronze jump rings, tan thonging cord and silver plated spring cord end. And I almost forgot! A pack of silver tone nickel free chains. :)

And this is how much I had to pay for it.



I'm very disappointed with the nylon jawed pliers actually. Cost me around AUD$4 and that is even after discount! Why? Because the pliers is so huge and gigantic that it looks more for use for anything BUT jewellery making. And the nylon doesn't even feel like nylon at all!! It felt plasticky. Waste of my money!

The reason why I wanted to get nylon jawed pliers is because I'm very prone to mar my wires when I'm doing wirework. Somehow, I'm always very kan cheong that they might slip that I ended up gripping them so hard that it mars the wire. I've yet to master the application of the right amount of tension.

Well, I didn't just bought once from them during their stock liquidation sale. I got something else the second time around.


6 of the bead storage boxes on the left, 6 of the bead storage boxes on the right and 2 packs of 60 coils brown adult 5.5cm memory wire.

The storage box on the left and right are different. Even though both comes in 6 compartments, the ones on the left has a single lid but the ones on the right with 6 individual lids. They're kinda like those storage boxes for pills. I like the storage box on the right a lot. Small enough for me to store my Swarovski crystal beads.

I actually intend to give 6 of the storage box; 3 of each kind and a pack of the memory wire to my Aunt LB in UK when a cousin sis of mine is going over next month because she has been so supportive of me in jewellery making. But I ended up using 4 of the boxes on the left and all 6 on the right that I now ended up giving her only 2. Err....heheh, I've got more beads and findings than she does, so she probably wouldn't need that much boxes. :P

More importantly, how much did I pay for them?



Well, I didn't actually buy them. It's free. They were giving it away for free. All you need to pay is only the shipping cost and you can have as many as you like. I like the storage boxes so much that I actually thought of getting some more but they were only left with the other types and no more of the ones that I like a lot.

Bear in mind that the shipping charges will inevitably commensurate with the weight. There were like thousands and thousands of storage boxes waiting to be given away. Which means, some traders can even get some and then sell them off to make a profit right?

I've never come across something like this before. I wonder what prompted them to do so?

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Visit www.findingbeads4u.com.au NOW!!

I just checked my mailbox. I got a newsletter from findingbeads.com.au
They are having a sale. But not just an ordinary sale.
A STOCK LIQUIDATION SALE!!
Prices are slashed down like you've never seen before!!
Calling for all jewellery maker enthusiasts, now this is your chance to stock up!!
Bulk/Wholesale are also available!
They are even giving adult memory wire and craft bead storage boxes away......
FOR FREE!!
All you need to do is only to pay for shipping!!

What are you waiting for? Hurry!! Go visit here now!! Before it's all gone!!

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