I'm changing my name to tooljunquie!

[rockjunquie]

No not really, but I should. Since I began metal working, I have been researching what would be the minimum tools to have. Rio has a lot of my money and then I discovered the foredom prices at otto frie. By the time all my stuff arrives I will have a nice outfit... and yet... my want list grows. Will there ever be an end??? I'm going broke and I don't even know if I will be any good at this. All I can say is -- I better be! I need to make some money back! LOL!

[Deleted]

you will be good. You have the skill of being able to pay attention to details. Plus not doubt, you learn from error. My prediction is profits in 4 months.

tooljunquie! I love it. Ain't we all??

[rockjunquie]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. If it's 4 months, I'll be very happy.

[Drummond Island Rocks]

I would say good luck but with your skill set and persistence no luck will be required.
I keep telling myself to stay away from this new section but you guys keep baiting with all the cool bezel settings over here.

I dont think many people understand how many tools (and hours) it requires to pick up a rock from the ground and make a nice piece of jewelry from it.

chuck

[jamesp]

Tooooooools. Lots and lots of tooooools.

[1dave]

Someone stuck a stick in an ant hill and licked the ants off, and see what happened?

Rumor has it...

inventors.about.com/library/lessons/bl_appendix5.htm

That a Patent Office official resigned and recommended that the Patent Office be closed because he thought that everything that could possibly be invented had already been invented!

While that statement makes good fun of predictions that do not come to pass, it is none the less just a myth. Researchers have found no evidence that any official or employee of the U.S. Patent Office had ever resigned because there was nothing left to invent. A clue to the origin of the myth may be found in Patent Office Commissioner Henry Ellsworth's 1843 report to Congress. In it he states, "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." But Commissioner Ellsworth was simply using a bit of rhetorical flourish to emphasize the growing number of patents as presented in the rest of the report. He even outlined specific areas in which he expected patent activity to increase in the future.

Taken out of context, such remarks take on a life of their own and are perpetuated in publication after publication whose authors, rather than check facts, copy and quote each other. For example, recent publications have attributed the "everything that has been invented..." quote to a later commissioner, Charles H. Duell, who held that office in 1899. Unlike Ellsworth, who may have been merely misquoted, there is absolutely no basis to support Duell's alleged statement. Just the opposite is true. Duell's 1899 report documents an increase of about 3,000 patents over the previous year, and nearly 60 times the number granted in 1837. Further, Duell quotes President McKinley's annual message saying, "Our future progress and prosperity depend upon our ability to equal, if not surpass, other nations in the enlargement and advance of science, industry and commerce. To invention we must turn as one of the most powerful aids to the accomplishment of such a result." Duell adds, "May not our inventors hopefully look to the Fifty-sixth Congress for aid and effectual encouragement in improving the American patent system?" These are unlikely words of someone who thinks that everything has been invented.

References:

Jeffery, Dr. Eber. Journal of the Patent Office Society. July 1940

Sass, Samuel. "A Patently False Patent Myth." Skeptical Inquirer 13 (1989): 310-312.

[rockjunquie]

1dave Great reminder that there is always something new to be done.

[Pat]

Tools is spelled t-o-y-s. The next question is: Where can I put it? Enjoy your new interest/addiction

[Tom]

Nope, there will never be an end Tela. You will keep finding tools you absolutely need (read want). But really who can ever have enough tools

[steelandstone]

Jan 23, 2014 21:08:38 GMT -5 Tom said:

Nope, there will never be an end Tela. You will keep finding tools you absolutely need (read want). But really who can ever have enough tools

You got that right!! My biggest mistake was thinking if I only had a bigger shop I could better organize all my tools...........Well that did not work out as planned. I keep joking with my wife that I need to put on an addition on my 40 x 60 workshop.. NO was the answer.

Tela the tool list will never end. I bet I have $20,000 wrapped up in lapidary and jeweler tools and I can think of $15,000 more I could use tomorrow and that still would not cover it all. There are worse addictions to spend your money on; at least that is what I keep telling myself.

[connrock]

I think you'll do just fine!
Starting out in just about any endeavor that requires tools can be overwhelming and confusing.
I've been asked the question,,,"What do I need to get me started?"
I always have trouble answering that question because there are so many tools and pieces of equipment that do the same job but are slightly different.
"Do I use a charcoal block or a Solder-Rite block,,,,or a fire brick?"
Whats' the best torch to use is always a good question! LOL

I mentioned once before about repousse tools and how you will NEVER have all of the right tools for any given project and may have to make them yourself to "fit" the job at hand!

We all have to start somewhere and find out what works best for us but the urge to buy something "new" is hard to fend off!

Being excited like you are now tells me you can't wait to get-er-done,,,and you WILL!
Enjoy!
connrock

[Pat]

I made up a list of necessary tools to get started; also made up a secondary list. I'm sure that list could go on and on and never end. Mine doesn't !

Getting more smithie tools is a lot more productive than getting a new hat!

[1dave]

BUT if you are determined, it is amazing how much you can do with almost nothing.

I mentioned Don Black in Fabrication. He only used about ten counting the torch and solder block etc.
forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/62878/fabrication

Many years ago I watched Don Black make jewelry for the tourists and rockhounds as they watched at the Spencer Precious Opal Mine shop in Spencer Idaho.

I was amazed at how few (and large) tools he used to make masterpieces.

About all he ever used was scrap sterling silver, a big pair of tin snips, a huge file, a hammer, chisel, a few punches, a ring mandrel, a chunk of wood, a torch, a burnisher, and a quick mind!

He would take their stones, fit a bezel to it, place it on some sheet silver, hammer a few patterns into scrap silver he had just snipped from a previous project and place it around the bezel, remove the stone, solder everything together, perhaps solder a ring shank or whatever on the back, quench it in "pickle," polish it up, set the stone with the burnisher, and make the sale in about 5 minutes! Then on to the next customer. He was amazing!

[Deleted]

It is amazing the enterprise of some folks. I once watched a dude in Tijuana, Baja Del Norte, Mexico take stainless rings and with a jewelers saw cut out the letters of your name. In about two minutes. $5 each, $4 profit (gotta buy the ring and the saw blades) He had a line of 20 people deep each buying 2-5 rings as travel gifts for the people back home. I counted 15 in 30 minutes. 30 an hour $120 hour. When he did ours I asked him will he be bizzy all day and he said 10am-10pm for the entire holiday weekend. I did some quick math cut out weekdays and half for non holiday weekends.

He admitted to living in San Diego, walked to work in TJ cut names into rings for american cash and walked home. We gave him $25 and I asked him if he was making $100,000 a year he smiled and gave one quick affirmative nod. This was 1992.

His tools? A small chair, a wooden box with a jeweler's pin, the saw and blades and in the box was trays with his selection of ring sizes.

[1dave]

@shotgunner, too bad you don't have photos of that!

[Deleted]

Might still have the rings! Stainless is long lasting!

[gemfeller]

Many years ago when I was in college in Albuquerque N.M. I waited tables for a nice Mexican restaurant in Old Town Plaza. On weekends a young Navajo silversmith set up a small table near the entrance, making turquoise-set jewelry for tourists. He worked quickly and confidently, producing beautiful finished pieces with amazing speed. His tools were pretty basic: tin snips, hardware store hammers, stamp designs he'd filed himself from nail punches, etc. But the thing that sticks in my memory most after my own work with silver was his torch. He used nothing but a bulky old-fashioned gasoline blowtorch for even the most delicate soldering. He was amazing and truly talented. I'd often arrive a half hour before my work shift began just to watch him. I think of him whenever I get frustrated when soldering and have a little laugh at myself.

[Rockoonz]

So @shotgunner what you're saying is if I get well tanned, learn a little espanol and work 12 hour days every weekend in Mexico I could just about double my income.

[Deleted]

Rockoonz - lol - perhaps!

I am not even sure if he spoke spanish. My memory is he did look mexican. But he did claim San Diego as his home town. This would prolly work in any tourist trap though. Certainly in San Francisco. Much closer drive and no tan required! haha

[1dave]

Jan 24, 2014 14:17:14 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

Might still have the rings! Stainless is long lasting!

I hope you find them. I'd like to see his work.