Guide to Basic Jewelry Tools for Beginners

This article is a common guide to jewelry making tools and supplies. Only when you have a clear understanding of jewelry making tools can you use them properly to create a wonderful piece of handcrafted jewelry.

Here are 5 basic styles of craft supplies and tools:

Round Nose Pliers

Round nose pliers are a specialized pair of pliers characterized by their rounded, tapering jaws. They are most commonly used for creating loops in pieces of wire by electricians and jewelry makers. For creating a larger loop, you can position your wire near the handles, while for a smaller loop you can position your wire towards the tip of the jaws.

Making eye pins and jump rings with round nose pliers by your own is a doddle.

Flat Nose Pliers

Flat nose pliers are designed for making sharp bends and right angles in wire. They are similar to chain nose pliers but the jaws don't taper towards the tip. This gives a wider surface to make the pliers better for bending and gripping the wire. You can also use them to easily open jump rings and chain links.

Chain Nose Pliers

Chain nose pliers are a very versatile tool, most commonly used for gripping and manipulating wire, head pins and eye pins, as well as opening and closing jump rings and earring wires. The jaws of chain nose pliers taper towards the tip just like round nose pliers, which make them useful for getting into small spaces. For instance, you can tuck in a wire end with chain nose pliers.

Wire Cutter

Wire cutters are pliers intended for the cutting of wires. It allows you to cut headpins, eye pins and wires to certain length. Wire cutter is the most indispensable tool for jewelry makers. You will need to use this tool in almost all jewelry making projects. They are useful for cutting copper, brass, iron, aluminum and steel wire. Lower quality versions are generally not suitable for cutting tempered steel, such as piano wire, as the jaws are not hard enough. So choosing a high quality wire cutter is useful for your craft work.

Crimping Pliers

Crimping pliers are used to secure a clasp on the end of beading wire with crimp beads or tubes and pass the wire through the clasp then back through the crimp bead.

There are two notches in the jaws of crimping pliers. You can use the first notch which is nearest the handles to flatten the crimp bead onto the wire. This turns it into a 'U' shape, ideally with one piece of wire in each side of the 'U', then you can use the other notch to shape the 'U' into round.

Do you know well about them? If yes, then it's time to start your work now. And you can find all of the pliers on