Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Infamous Toolbox II, It's All About The Tools Baby!

Well one of the main purposes of talking & showing my tools was to elicit responses and to learn how others like to store and carry their tools and what they use! Sadly this doesn't seem to be the case. Oh well, I will carry on and finish this "series"

As one can see I have collected a few tools over the years for wire working.

I started out with the green-handled round, chain and flat nosed pliers, a pair of okay flush cutters and the red, rubber tipped hemostats. Along with these tools I also had 20 & 22 gauge, half hard, square wire and half round wire in 14k gold filled and sterling
silver.

Since those humble beginnings I have acquired another pair of round-nosed pliers that make smaller loops, bent-nosed pliers, looping pliers, an extra set of flat-nose pliers, bail pliers and two pairs of nylon jawed pliers along with two pairs of good flush cutters/wire nippers and a heavy duty pair of wire cutters suitable for memory wire and fusing wire. I prefer the smaller nylon-jawed pliers to the larger pair. Does anyone have any like those and if so do you know where to buy replacement jaws? My favorite wire cutters are the small, black handled ones my ex gave me.

Propped up in front of all the tools you can see the hardwood drawplate I made all by myself for drawing handmade chains. (I could say more about chains, but will save it for another post.) Also to the right of the drawplate, still in the bag, is the nice metal hole punch I purchased at the 2008 Interweave Beadfest in Portland, Oregon. Not shown are my crimping pliers and my split-ring pliers. This is just the plier type hand tools!

So what tools do you use? Do you have any specialty tools or particular favorites, brands, etc;?

1 comment:

Belinda Lee said...

You're doing an excellent job Pam! I use about the same sort of tools as you do but because I don't do shows etc., I don't have to think about how to make them 'portable'. But if I ever need to move my stuff around I know that this would be an excellent place for tips/advice. Keep it up. Makes for great reading too.