What did you start with?

[Cracked Baubble]

or what would you say is a must have from the very beginning?

[Anakin's Glass Eye]

Hot Head & necessary clamps
Small rectangular graphite marver
Tungston poker
Mandrels
Bead release
Striker
Safety glasses
Spring open needle nose pliers

[firegrl]

LOL
I still do not have graphite marver

I started very basic
HH
Mandrels
bead release
glass
SS knife - large used as a marver
safety glasses
pliers
I learned to improvise very quickly.
Oh and I bought another fire extinguisher on the heels of starting to work glass. Just seemed bright at the time.

mandrels were my tungston pic


I now have tools that if I lost them I would cry ~really loud and slubbery

Cathy

[magpiejst]

Thats another interesting question - which tools would you cry if you lost?


magpie

[SassyCassie]

My super cool pokey tool I got at a jewelry makers supply store. They stopped carrying them so I bought all EIGHT they had left in stock. Sick eh?

I JUST got a graphite marver about 2 months ago and got a torch mounted one...oh...3 weeks ago? LOL!

Cass

[Dale M.]

None.... Most for me are replaceable out of tool/junk drawer...

You have to remember anything metal makes a possible tool, you just have to figure out how to use it and keep it cool (quench in water). Hot glass usually will not stick to cold metal.

Dale

[joycerenee]

I love tools. I confess. I'm an addict. But the one tool I couldn't do without?

It's simple & fairly inexpensive - a heavy pair of pointed pliers I bought out of a sale bin at a hardware store. They were part of a set of 5 pliers for 89 cents.

I use them everyday for everything - from holding hot glass rods and heating copper or silver for metalwork to holding mandrels and opening stuck lids. They also make some interesting patterns on glass leaves. ;)

Joy

[Slaterville]

Burn ointment and bandages............LOL!

Penny

[firegrl]

I have this small paddle thing. The paddle part is less then an inch long. Boy it is great. I was lamping at a friends house and thought I had left it there and pouted for a week until I could talk to her...No it was in my "tool" kit. I did't tell her how upset I was. lol She laughs at me enough already lol

Cathy

[joycerenee]

LOL - Penny's right. Band-aids. Lots and lots of Band-aids.

Joy

[suzanne]

I would cry if I ever lost my poker tools I got from Corina. I love them!! I lost the thinnest one a while ago, and it made me clean up my WHOLE house... I didnt even do that when I went into labour..:D;)

[MikeAurelius]

My marble molds - my favorite "walked off", taken by some light fingered louie. I was heartbroken. It was broken in, all the sharp edges nicely softened.

Sigh. It's going to take me a year to get the new one broken in just right.

[Moth]

I don't think I would cry over any of my hand tools, but I would cry if my concentrator broke down, or if I got glass in my torch head.

My favorite tools are usually the cheapest, but there are several that I would have to replace immediately if I lost them:

Pin vise with straight edge razor
Bent Steel Rake
Graphite paddle
tweezers
needlenose pliers

Those tools can do anything I need to do so far.
~~Mary