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New Tools!!!! Yippy!!!! These are some new tools I have been longing for…. for two years! Jeez, Joy just get them already. Why are you waiting to purchase tools you already know how to use and need? Hmmm? Holding myself back ~ how ridiculous.

In this picture is Chasing tools which is the little tin of small steel punches. They are just perfect! I can’t wait to use them. Other tools are Fretz forming stakes in the small wooden rack. The big set of ball shapes is a Durston Dapping Set. I almost could not finish a men’s ring this Christmas because I did not have this large set. My old set is smaller. There is a steel forming block with steel pieces that fit it to make sharp angles and curves, etc… A tube cutting jig is not shown well but behind the chasing tin. This helps cut tubing perfectly to make hinges which I have been doing steady and love it. The small set of files is laid out in a row is joint files. The teeth on them is only on the edges of the file not on the large surface. Why? So you can file a perfect groove in something and not be filing everything else above and below it – this is necessary to make hinges sit perfectly in a groove and the solder to stay there too. They work well for prongs as well. The set of them was really expensive but they are in different millimeter thicknesses and you really need single one.

This is a picture of a block of pitch and the pitch bowl. I have to prepare this bowl for use by pour cement in the 1/3 of the bowl and poking holes in the cement. The cement then has to cure ( the cement holds the pitch in place forever.) After the I can break up the red block of pitch which is a wax, tar like substance. I will put the pieces in the bowl and melt them (the bowl is cast iron). After the pitch is melted into the bowl in a nice mound it is ready to use. I can then heat up the surface with a heat gun and place a piece of metal in it and let the pitch cool. This is a fast process. The pitch holds the metal still but will ‘give’ enough for you to work the surface of the metal – with the chasing punches…. or repousse work. I have been texturing metal for a long time without this simple ancient tool. I can’t wait to sit down and hammer out a design with this ancient technique.

Chasing tools…Oh so Pretty!