Tools adapted to boost Silversmith skills
Ian Stewart-Hargreaves a Silversmith based on the Isle of Lewis, worked with us to adapt Metalcraft tools so that they could work with sterling silver.
We learnt a lot about silversmithing in our conversations with Ian and enjoyed the challenge he set us in adapting our tools to make jewellery.
Sadly, Ian passed away in August 2011 but with his ingenuity and our experience, it proved that our Master Twister tool could be developed to produce silver torcs.
In addition, our XL5+ Power Bender, Ian used to handcraft the torcs to produce various pieces of silver jewellery.
Torcs are traditionally thousand-year-old necklaces made by twisting rods of silver together. This meant adapting a pair of chucks to hold four rods and using a Master Twister to create the rope, with an XL5+ Bender used to shape the form.
By ordering chucks with different spacings, Ian could make rope candlesticks from 2, 4mm, 6mm and 8mm rods of silver. With different spacings at each end, he created a holder and a foot. Such candlesticks are expensive to craft, but they could also be designed from steel rods.
By understanding and developing adaptations from our existing range, it was great to prove that metal tooling could be used for other metals and not just steel.
