Bench Tips for Jewelry Making

101 Useful Tips from Brad Smith

Throughout the years, our metalsmithing guild, The Society for Midwest Metalsmiths, has published a newsletter.  Our membership has gleaned a great deal of valuable information that Brad Smith has shared.  How lucky we all are that these words of wisdom are now in a book form.

This small treasure covers a multitude of solutions to a myriad of issues facing the jewelry artisan.  A couple of years ago, during root canal surgery, a small piece of the drill broke in my husband’s tooth.  I don’t know if a solution of alum would have worked in this case, but I do know that it works, as Brad recommends, in removing a drill bit from a gemstone.

One doesn’t need a doctor’s prescription to cure these jewelry making maladies. Cutting a bolt, drilling a gemstone, sanding tight spots, modifying pliers, testing for silver, identifying solder, easier prong setting., etc., are all there at one’s finger tips.  The how-to topics go on and on.  The easy to understand text and very good photographic black and white images makes this book quite self-explanatory.

I would give Brad Smith a DM “Doctor of Metalsmithing” degree and top honors for his wonderful dissertation of “Bench Tips for Jewelry Making.”