Preston Reuther's Wire Jewelry Making Tools

If you are a jewelry maker,  wirewrapper or beader  and trying to pick out your jewelry making tools for whatever jewelry making idea you have. You will find it’s much like trying to land a large plane in a small forest!  In other words it ain’t easy! Jewelry tools are rarely categorized into:

• SILVERSMITHING TOOLS
• GOLD SMITHING TOOLS
• BEADERS TOOLS
• PRECIOUS METAL CLAY TOOLS
• COPPERSMITHING TOOLS
• WIRE WRAPPING TOOLS
• WIRE SCULPTING TOOLS

You just never see them in this particular niche it’s basically really up to the company that sells them to put the right tool in front of the right jewelry trade. And if the owner of that company is not a jewelry maker then you always have a bit of a problem. Why?

Because owners of jewelry tool companies sell tools that they can make a profit on and sometimes its chosen because one tool makes more money then another tool rather then one tool doing a beter job then the other for the jewelry designer.
Then you get into the choice and politics of where the tool was made.  And that country could be a popular one or one that is not so popular at any particular time in history. Lets look at a few:

Home Town USA — Good jewelers tools but not great jewelers tools because most of the tool manufacturing is geared toward wood craft, electrical etc and rarely making jewelry. A good tool at a fair price. I really wish the US would start manufacturering things again like the old days. Most all jewelry  making tools come from other countries so we have to deal with that.

Germany —- Great tools with great precision but it can be a little pricey because we have to get it over here. But  there is no question that the Germans are more precise and proud of there tools then most other countries and have a long histry or precision tool making.

Sweden — Much like Germany but the prices are way up there and normally out of the reach of the small time jewelry maker. And today with this economic crunch every penny counts right? But they do have great jewelry tools and great construction and precision. I just wish they did it cheaper.

China — Depending on what way the wind is blowing we either love or hate china and all the products in it. But we want great products but we can’t really afford them so our house is full of products made in china that we can afford. Such as toasters, irons, computers, lights, you name it and so go the jewelry tools. But the tools were very primitive early on but now I think they are much more improved. Maybe not for the high end professional jeweler but they can provide a good living for a just getting started home jeweler. Prices are great from China and jeweler’s tools have imporved quite a bit even if there human rights policys have not.

Pakistan — Early on Pakistan’s jewelery tools, especially wire working tools, were rough to say the least but I can personally tell you that there tools and  the metal they make them with is getting better and better and they now make a look alike to a German set of wire working pliers and it is a great set of tools at a fraction of the price of the German ones. And the tool makers of Pacistan have been making edged swords and knives for thousands of years so they have a  lot of hand forging and finishing in there tools, which I like, and the price is very reasonable and the tools are improving each year. Several medical doctors, hospitals and othe medical technicians have there tools now made in Packistan for price and quality.

I had some problems with some of the wirewrapping tools I used and there were few choices for some types of wire jewelry constrtuction and no choice for prong ring pliers so I designed my own (seen here) and had them made overseas and can you beleve it they work pretty good. They were made from stainless steel and the jaws were inserted with brass to keep your gold filled wire or silver wire from being scratched while building a prong ring or opening up the window of a wire bracelet.

Then you have the job of matching the tool  of the craftsman with the art and few people can help you with that so you have to use what you like and what feels good to your hand. And I can tell you as a professional wire artist, jewelry designer and tool designer most of the tools I use in making wire jewelry come from other arts such as GOLDSMITHING, SILVERSMITHING, etc etc. Not too many really good tools are made just for the art of making wire jewelry most of them are sort of affordable tools/toys with plastic components.

And I don’t know about you but plastic and tools go together like coffee and pickles!  I don’t do plastic.

Here are a few things you might look for when buying jewelry making tools:

#1. PRICE – Makes no difference what a tool cost if you cannot afford it what’s the point. Don’t go broke just so you have some fancy over priced jewelry tool. Go to a forum where people make jewelry for a living! Not talk about making jewelry but actually do it and ask around.

#2. SIZE – If you are a 4 ft tall female beader and love to bead a 6 inch long beading tool might not be good for your hand nor will it fit well , so if you  are small get tools that are small and fit your hand well.

#3. CUTTING EDGE— As the owner of a jewelry making tool company I see tools come and go and some look very cool, especially wire cutting pliers! They look so shiney and sleek and now they have stripped handles, purple handles and even handles that have glitter in them! But none of this mean they can actually cut a small piece of wire! So when you get your wire cutters you need to see how much of a struggle there is to cut a small piece of copper wire or gold filled wire, silver wire or whatever wire you are trying to cut. NOTE; You can’t cut steel wire with these cutters unless they are memory wire cutters or some type of heave duty electricians tool.

So that is a brief peak at the wonderful world of jewelry making tools. So when you start making jewelry try to make the best decision you can make but no matter what you just gotta have every jewelry tool out there. And there are more jewelry tools coming out each month so we gotta have those too!

Preston Reuther, Master Wire Sculptor
WireJewelryBootcamp.com