I'm feeling an odd mixture of excited
and sad today. My new tools have arrived, which makes me excited, but
that means retiring my old cutters and that make me sad.
Like a lot of people, when I first
started making jewellery I “borrowed” a pair of wire cutters and
a pair of pliers from a standard tool kit. These are fine to use
while you are just starting out, a cheep way to take that first step.
But once you know that this is something you want to do, they just
don't do the job. This is especially true if you want to do wire
work. Standard pliers will scratch and mark your wire, the cutters
will not give a nice flush cut. As for turning a neat loop or
starting a spiral without round nosed pilers, it's just impossible.
So I started out on what has become an
obsession for pliers. My first buy was a pair of round nose and some
proper flat nosed pliers. Next came my first love. My flush cutters.
At just under £10 I thought them to be quite expensive. Nicely
weighted with cushioned handles that fit in my hand perfectly. And
they had cool purple and green stripy handles! Best of all they cut,
at least to one side of the blades, with a reasonably flush face.
They have seen a LOT of use, those
cutters. Their flush cutting ability is no longer up to my standard
of wirework, resulting in a lot of filing of wire ends. But I was
loyal to my first cutters. This spring however, I started to notice
that they just weren't slicing through the wire as easily as before.
And then, horror of horrors, a chip! Right near the tip of the
cutters where they get the most use! I was devastated.
Time to finally upgrade.
I found a set of Xuron tools – flush
cutters, round nosed pliers and flat nosed pliers – in a little
tool roll that seamed to be perfect. After reading a lot of reviews
for them and other makes I decided to take the plunge.
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| My new pliers in their tool roll |
And they are wonderful! The flush
cutters are so very sharp and the cut they make so very smooth – on
BOTH sides of the cutting blades. And they have a lovely point
perfect for getting into tight little coils of wire where an end can
be nicely hidden. The flat nosed pliers are equally wonderful, very
narrow, just perfect for tucking in ends or encouraging weaving to go
where I want it to. The round nosed pliers are taking a bit more
getting used to. Their point is much finer than my old ones and so
fantastic for starting spirals, but they don't get as wide at the
base as my other sets so aren't as useful for turning different sized
loops or making cones.
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| From left to right, flat nosed pliers, flush cutters and round nosed pliers |
As for the old cutters. I'm keeping
hold of them. It might be sentimental, but it just would be the same
to look into my tool kit and not see their stripy handles!
