The Bench Journal

A curated flat-lay of essential silversmithing tools on a worn wooden workbench.
The 12 tools every new silversmith needs (and 6 to skip)
Walk into any jewellery supplier, online or in Hatton Garden, and you’re hit with a wall of tools. Hundreds of them. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and even easier to... Read more...
A well-lit, organised jeweller's bench with a GRS bench peg, showing hand tools neatly arranged.
Setting up your first jewellery bench: a UK buyer's guide
The leap from a college workshop to your own space is a daunting one. The temptation is to either buy a complete, pre-packaged kit of questionable quality, or to spend... Read more...
Editorial overhead photograph of a watchmaker's bench setup: a watch face-up in a wooden case holder, dial exposed, with two thin levers (or a hand-puller tool) positioned over the hour-hand boss. Anti-magnetic titanium tweezers and a loupe
Removing watch hands without damaging the dial: an amateur's guide
Watch hand removal is the operation where amateurs lose dials. The hands sit on tiny pressed-fit tubes called the "cannon pinion" (minute hand), "hour wheel" (hour hand), and… Read more...
Editorial top-down photograph of an amateur watch-repair toolkit laid out on cream linen: a wooden case holder with a watch resting in it, a 16-piece watch repair kit fanned out beside, a loupe to one side, anti-magnetic titanium tweezers,
A watch-repair starter kit: what amateur watchmakers actually need
Let me be straight with you: full watchmaking is a different discipline from jewellery making, and a true watchmaker's bench takes a different kit (and several years of training)… Read more...
Editorial top-down shot of a maker's stamp mid-strike on the inside of a silver ring shank. The ring is held flat against a small steel anvil block, the stamp positioned at 90° with a heavy hammer caught just above frame. Cream linen backgr
Stamping your maker's mark cleanly, every time
The maker's mark is your signature. It tells customers, future buyers, and (eventually) the Assay Office who made the piece. Done well, it's a small, sharp, perfectly aligned… Read more...
Editorial top-down shot of a multi-shape steel disc cutter set arranged on cream linen: the steel die block with shaped cavities, five matching punches lined up beside it, a small section of cut silver discs (round, hexagon, teardrop) fanne
Disc cutter sets explained: what 7–21 mm gives you at the bench
A disc cutter is one of those tools that looks more complicated than it is. The first time you see one — a heavy steel block with shaped cavities and... Read more...
Top-down editorial photograph of a complete hands-free soldering setup: heavy third-hand base with cross-lock tweezers mounted, charcoal block on stainless holder beside it, titanium soldering pick within reach, copper pickling tweezers in
Setting up a hands-free soldering station for the home bench
The hardest part of learning to solder at home is not the soldering technique. It's that you have three things to do simultaneously — hold the workpiece steady, direct the... Read more...
Editorial top-down photograph of three soldering tweezers laid in parallel on cream linen: a straight cross-lock tweezer with fibre grips, a reverse-action self-locking tweezer, and a third-hand-base with mounted cross-lock. Warm window lig
Cross-lock vs reverse-action tweezers: choosing soldering tools for the bench
Tweezers are the most-used tool on a jewellery bench by a wide margin. You'll touch one in nearly every operation: holding a setting while you solder, retrieving a hot piece... Read more...
Editorial bench photograph of a silver ring slipped halfway down a tapered aluminium ring mandrel, with the size markings clearly visible on the mandrel's surface. The ring is at approximately the M position. A small rawhide mallet rests be
How to size and stretch a ring without distorting the metal
The first time a customer brings you a ring that's a size too small, the panic is real. Make it wrong and you've either cracked a shank, distorted the band... Read more...
Editorial flat lay of three ring mandrels — a steel mandrel, an aluminium mandrel with marked sizing grooves, and a tapered wooden mandrel — arranged in parallel on a cream linen surface. Warm window light from upper left, subtle drop shado
Steel, aluminium, or wood ring mandrel — what you actually need
A ring mandrel is the most-handled tool on a jewellery bench. Every ring you make, repair, or resize touches one. If a hammer is the tool you reach for, a... Read more...
Macro close-up of a pair of flush-cut side cutters mid-snip through a piece of half-hard sterling silver wire, captured at the instant the wire parts. Bright workshop light from above, brass details on the plier handles. Cream linen backgro
Cutting hardened jewellery wire without damaging your jaws
The first time you put a pair of brand-new side cutters through a length of memory wire, two things happen. The wire splays open like a flower under the jaw,... Read more...
Top-down editorial photograph of three pliers laid out on a cream linen surface — a round-nose, a chain-nose, and a parallel-action chain-nose pliers. Brass accents on the handle ends. Warm window light from upper left. No watermark, no tex
Bench pliers vs parallel-action pliers: which to buy first
The pliers section of any jewellery-tools shop is a confusion trap. Round-nose, chain-nose, flat-nose, bent-nose, snipe-nose, half-round, parallel-action, ergonomic, mini,… Read more...
Top-down photograph of a piece of dull-red glowing silver sheet on a soldering-grade charcoal block, flame just retreated, light wisp of heat distortion above the metal. Warm amber light from the torch tone. Subtle workshop atmosphere — cor
How to anneal and forge silver at the bench: a UK jeweller's step-by-step
Sterling silver is brilliant to work with right up until you ask it to bend a second time. Hammer it once, planish it, pull it through a draw plate —... Read more...
Close, low-angle shot of a chasing hammer resting on an oak bench peg, brass and warm-grey palette, soft window light from the left, shallow depth of field. No watermark. Workshop context — visible bench pin, hint of pickle pot in the deep
Choosing your first jeweller's hammer: a bench jeweller's buying guide
Every beginner asks the same question, and they ask it before they've ever held a piece of annealed silver: which hammer should I buy first? It's the right question —... Read more...