Guide to jewelry pliers - which seaweed should I use?
If you are new to jewelry making, it may well be a jungle with pliers. Which seaweed is best to use? And what pliers are there?
When working with jewelry making, it is important to have the right tool. Jewelry plans such as flat, round tongs, tongs and crimp-tang are indispensable when designing and repairing DIY jewelry. In this guide, we show how to use these special tufts to achieve a professional finish and make sure your jewelry lasts longer.
Flat pliers
This seaweed is the most universal pliers and is often used in sets of two. Among other things, you can use the seaweed to open and close the boxes (read our guide to the woolen here) or to squeeze clamping pearls. It is also good for DIY creoles to be bent before they can be locked, and can be a help with a round tong when making 8's-see below. The flat pliers can also be used to fix earpieces that have become crooked and to fix loose locks on necklaces.
It is important that your flat pliers are pointed as it makes the work easier. Jewelery boilers can often be very small and therefore it can feel a little clumsy to work with a larger and wide seaweed. You may also encounter curved flat rides, but as such there is no difference between these and the ordinary, except for the angle. With Beadhouse we only sell the regular flat pliers as we have assessed that it is the most useful - you can find it here!
As a beginner, you may be tempted to use a pliers from the toolbox at home, and it can work in an emergency for a clamping pearl or two. But most materials used for jewelry making are quite soft metals. Tool bars typically have grooves that can put marks in the metal and give an unwanted finish. Furthermore, tool bars are often not narrow enough, which can make it difficult to work accurately. We therefore strongly recommend investing in jewelry plots instead.
Round
A round tong is used to make rounds in jewelry wire. The most typical technique is called 8's, where you make a small eye that acts as a "woolen". You can read our entire guide to this technique here!
The round song can also be used to squeeze clamping beads, but it is not the most optimal tool for this purpose. See our round tongs here!
Bidtang
This pliers, as the name suggests, is used to cut things over, such as pearl sticks or jewelry wire. However, the bitten pliers are not suitable for cutting tigerwire as tigerwire is a thin steel wire coated with nylon. Jewelry plots are not intended to cut steel as it is a very hard material. Instead, use an old scissors to cut this type of thread.
Our tongue is a bit angled and narrow so it can easily come in and cut wire over, also very close to pearls. You can find our bondang here!
Crimp-Tang
A Crimp-Tang is a special pliers designed exclusively for squeezing crimps (clamping beads). We have a whole guide on how this pliers are used, which you can find here!
The Crimp Tang is ideal for those who go up in the last finish. It is not strictly necessary to make jewelry, but it gives a nicer result and squeezes Crimps more durable than a regular flat pliers. The crimp tongue rounds the crimps a bit, instead of just pressing them flat. You can find the tang here!
