There is an every increasing amount of different pliers available to help you in your jewellery making, but when you are a beginner, what jewellery pliers do you really need? And what do they all do?
There are a lot of different pliers on the market, but a lot of them do a VERY specific job, are meant to do a few things at once or are designed to make something easier. But there are three main types of plier you really need to get started, each performing a unique function. There are another two that I’m including because I use them all the time and genuinely find them helpful and they make my jewellery making easier!
Chain Nose Pliers
Chain nose pliers have jaws that are flat and smooth (no teeth like household pliers!) on the inside. They are used for opening and closing jump rings, flattening crimps and gripping, holding and bending all manner of findings and components.
Round Nose Pliers
Round nose pliers are used for creating loops on headpins and eyepins
Cutters
Bet you can work out what these do? Yep, they cut excess wire and trim headpins. The photo above shows the top side of the cutters, the underside is flatter and you want to use this side as it gets nearer to your wire than the top side.
Flush Cutters
Flush cutters are an upgraded version of the normal cutters. I’m including them here because they provide a much, much nicer finish and can save you time filing sharp edges down. Its even more important with flush cutters to use the flat underside next to the part of wire you want to keep. This photo compares wire cut with the standard cutters (left) and the flush cutters (right). You can see the difference!
Bent Chain Nose Pliers
Bent Chain Nose Pliers perform the same job as the standard chain nose, but the tips curve which enable you to get a better grip on things like jump rings, especially with smaller components. I really love my bent nose pliers and generally work with a pair of straight and a pair of bent nose.
I use the Beadsmith professional pliers and the Beadalon flush cutters, but there are lots of brands out there, see if you can get to your local bead shop to try some out!
These are just the pliers that I both work with on a daily basis and recommend to those starting out, but they are just the tip of the tool mountain that is available. Do you have a favorite pair of pliers that you wouldn’t be without? Let me know by commenting below, on Instagram or Facebook! You can also sign up to my email The Loop where you can get a FREE copy of my Getting Started with Jewelllery Mkaing eBook. You can Happy Making!