Tools of the Jewelry Trade: Hammers

Time to share a few more tools of the jewelry trade today.  My all time favorite tool to use is a hammer!  There is something gratifying about pounding away at a piece of metal to create something beautiful. Collecting hammers can be a very addictive thing for a jeweler though as there are many different types for many different uses.

A jeweler can have a rawhide mallet, brasshead mallet, nylon mallet, chasing hammer, planishing hammer, riveting hammer, texturing hammer, ball-peen hammer and on..and on....and on....
Not only that, you can find all these hammers in many different sizes for many different projects.  It's hard to know when to stop collecting.

I typically use a plain old ball peen hammer for most of my work, a rawhide mallet for bending metal I don't want to mar, and occasionally texturing hammers.

Other tools like forming blocks, mandrels and anvils can extend the use of hammers even further.

Tools of the Jewelry Trade: Doming (dapping) Block

Have you ever wondered how jewelers get some amazing curved and domed shapes with their metal?  One way is to use what is know as a doming block or dapping block. Dapping basically means to dome metal.   Doming blocks come with various sized hemispheres and punches so you can adjust the the amount of curvature or dome metal of different sizes. Typically the metal is placed inside the block then the punch is placed on top and tapped with a hammer to achieve the desired dimension.  It takes a particular amount of force to get the metal to dome evenly without marring the surface.

Doming blocks come in both metal and wood. 

I use my dapping block to do all sorts of things, one of being my simple domed and textured disc necklaces.  In the case of these necklaces, the texture must be forged and the hole drilled before dapping:

Sterling Disc Necklace, Grass Texture

Find more jewelry made with a doming block and other jewelry techniques at Valerie Tyler Designs and Valerie Tyler on Etsy