This is an old vintage picture of me from the end of the last century Maybe 1999 or so. I had just moved to Dalhart TX. Had a new life and was playing in my shop with some of my old things. The stump I ma sitting in front of cam from an elk hunting trip looking for that perfect stump for my new anvil. Well new old. It is an old Vulcan anvil and has the arm holding a hammer logo image cast into it. I cut the side of this stump and formed and shelf bench and drilled larger holes in it to fit many tools I use.
To fit the anvil its self I router-ed a cavity in the top the anvil fits down into so it stays put. A little big for jewelry maybe. But I also work on my own tools I make to make jewelry with from using found objects in metal. If you look close Under my hands you will notice my anticlastic forming tool I made from an old tapered tent stake I found up in Seattle in an antique store. In front of the anvil is an original Dixon forming stake. Mounted in the anvil is an old vintage Dixon forming stake. Looking at the end of it width is over a foot. To my right and lower is an old 1888 casting mark anvil that I am restoring refitting for jewelry use. To my left is an old, only one I have ever seen, floor mounted cast iron shoe makers tool. I refitted for use on large objects like a large cuff bracelet to form. It tilts and allows many angles. I mounted a bracelet mandrel in it.
And also many tools on the shelf and wall . This is only the start as this is not my metal forming area this is my soldering bench and what I roll to around on my chair for quick access, this is only my soldering area and quick access to an anvil or something while soldering. My version of what a bench jeweler has on his tiny bench. A bench jeweler works on micro amounts of metal. I am a silver smith and need much more space as I work on many ounces of silver at a time. My silver come in 6 inches x 36 inches so just my shear is mounted in another area next to my rolling mill. Much much more to come on the inside of my studio tour.

My first jewelry polisher

My first buffer
It is funny going down memory lane. I had forgotten many things but writing about them have brought some back to me. My first buffer was an old salvaged motor I had probably gotten at the flea market or garage sale. I had made a mounting shaft collar in metal shop in high school. It was made to slide over a shaft and had a nut and threads to put a grinding wheel or buffing wheel on a shaft that did not have threads and a nut to tighten. So I bought a 6 inch buffing wheel and slid it on this adapter and had my first polishing setup. I did not even own a bench and would hold this motor down to the floor with my knee pushing on top of it. Yes a horrible and humble start. Back then things progressed very quickly and there just was not time to put together the perfect little studio. I can remember that while I was buffing and holding this motor down with my knee that the motor would get hot and the buffing wheel would spin and throw the black buffing fuss in my face. I do not remember how long this motor was used but not very long. I also did not even know about the speed of a correct buffing motor. The motor I used was of course wrong as everything when I first did it was wrong. I always learned the wrong way first and then corrected. The correct motor speed for buffing is 3450 RPM and the wrong motor I used was 1725 rpm. This less rpm would not give me the shine I saw on jewelry and I wondered what I was doing wrong. There were and still are many approaches and opinions to which buffing compound to use first and which to get the shine with and also which buffing wheel to use for each step. So in the beginning with this wrong speed motor there were other compounds and wheels to figure out also. So a clear cut answer to get the ultimate shine took s few steps to figure out. It was not just the motor. Soon I would have a nice Paige buffer. and my equipment got very professional very quickly. So that was my first buffing motor in my humble beginnings.
Copyright @ 2010 James Saunders

My humble beginings

My start
I started making jewelry from a very humble and limited beginning. My first tools were a pair of pliers, a pair of tin snips, a file and an acetylene torch. I actually soldered on a flat rock. I did not even have a soldering pad. I remember I was on a road construction crew and I looked for a flat rock out there along the road. There were a couple of hippie guys I worked with and they kept talking about an Indian they knew that was teaching them to make silver jewelry. They invited me to learn with them. One day after work I went to their house to look at what they were making. I was very impressed with the ring they had made. Of course if I were to see it today I probably would have been horrified. But at the time I thought if these two guys who had never held a torch could make this ring, Then how much better could I do with the many years of torch work I had in school.
So I went to Rio Grande Jewelry supply and with absolutely zero jewelry making knowledge bought my first things. At the time Rio Grande was just a little place here in Albuquerque. They were just off Central Ave which is old RT 66. The bldg. was very small and very cluttered. There were literally a path in-between equip down the middle. Mr. Bell was behind the gold and precious stone counter. At the end was the silver area with all the sheet and wire coils. The coils were on the wall and there was a lot of silver hanging there. I walked by a lot of tools I had no ides what they did. Not to appear totally stupid I asked for a torch, and they pointed me to what everyone used back then. It was a torch that had a stand up acetylene tank , a regulator and a 6 foot hose attached. A good choice I would never recommend below. I got some silver sheet some silver wire and some solder. They probably asked me which solder and I just took easy wire solder. Other wise known as the lowest melting point of the silver solders. I was never taught about the different solders and the melting points and purposes of each. I learned to solder with just one solder, easy wire. It was hell later when making big bracelets. I always wondered why some bezel joints would separate. But I got so good at using just the one temp, that it didn’t matter. Out of hundreds of rings I would only loose one to the solder joint separating anyway.
So armed with a torch ,some silver and solder and bezel and some pickle. I went to making my first ring. I think I might have had Ben Hunts silversmithing book, but in thinking back I do not even think I had that. I did find a pair of pliers in my stuff a file and found a flat rock to solder on. That was an experience, for those of you that do not know. You can not heat up a rock. Especially river tumbled smooth rocks, as they hold more water. It will explode apart. I remember as I was soldering the rock would explode little pieces from it. I did not have goggles and would hold my head away as I was soldering. That was how I made my first few pieces.
Copyright 2010 @ James Saunders