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SUMMER PROGRAM SCHEDULE** Hello! During the period 17-22 July 2025 Showroom pickup is not available! The online store remains OPEN and orders placed during this time will be processed with slight delays. Thank you for your understanding!
Metal is the essence of jewelry, a material with history, character and unlimited potential for transformation. Before hammering, cutting or welding it, it is important to understand how it works.What it is, how it behaves, and how we choose it depending on the type of piece we want to make. Whether you work with silver, copper, brass or discover titanium and bronze, understanding the behavior of the material is the first step towards a successful piece of jewelry.
This page is an introduction to metals used in jewelry, their properties, how they react to processing and the basic tools they use to work with.
Both precious metals and base alloys are used in artistic and contemporary jewelry. Each has distinct properties that influence how it can be processed, finished, and worn.
Metal | Malleability | Melting point (°C) | Skateability | Email compatible | Difficulty in processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Silver | Very large | 962 | Moderate | Da | Light |
Gold | Very large | 1064 | Scazutan | Da | Light |
Copper | Seaside | 1085 | Very large | Partial | Light |
Brass | Seaside | 900–940 | Seaside | Not recommended | easy-medium |
Bronze | environment | 850–950 | Very large | Not recommended | environment |
Titan | Scazutan | 1668 | anodizing | Nu | Difficult |
Stainless steel | Scazutan | 1400–1450 | low | Nu | Difficult |
Before cutting or shaping metal, it's important to draw and measure accurately. These tools help you mark contours, axes, center points, or symmetries.
The scorers – used to create a small indented point in metal that serves as a reference for drilling or cutting. It helps guide the drill bit and prevents it from slipping.
Markers and markers – resembles a stiff needle or a thin steel tip, allows lines to be drawn on metal (especially before perforation)
Jewelers' rulers and squares – used for accurate measurements and drawing angles
Compass – indispensable for drawing circles, arches or establishing equal distances. Ideal for symmetrical designs, marking for stone setting, parallel edges, etc.
Calipers and calipers – used to accurately measure sheet thickness, wire diameter, stone or ring size
For forging, shaping, planing or texturing.
A jeweler's saw is one of the most essential tools in the metalworking workshop. It allows you to cut complex shapes, precise contours, and detailed cutouts in sheet metal.
Blades are extremely important for cutting efficiency. They are numbered according to thickness and tooth size.
➡️ Standard recommendation:
For 0.6–1 mm silver, #2/0 or #3/0 cloth is ideal.
Files are essential tools in metalworking, used for smoothing, adjusting and finishing parts. They differ in shape, size and fineness of the teeth, an aspect known as cut.
Hand files are longer and wider, ideal for quickly removing material on large surfaces or outside edges.
Needle files are smaller, finer, and have a thin tip. They are used for fine details, hard-to-reach places, or miniature jewelry.
CUT It indicates the density and depth of the teeth on the file surface, basically how aggressive the file is in cutting the material.
➡️ The higher the cut number, the finer and denser the teeth.
Approximate example:
Torches are essential in the jewelry workshop, for welding, melting, but also for annealing (the process of thermally softening metal to make it malleable again, sometimes colloquially called "annealing").
???? Annealing is especially essential after repeated rolling, bending, or hammering – times when the metal becomes hard and brittle.
After cutting, forming and welding, any piece of jewelry needs a careful finishing step. This includes smoothing the surfaces, removing scratches, rounding the edges, grinding and polishing to a mirror shine (or achieving a satin effect, if desired).
It is applied to polishing wheels or textile discs.
🧼 For optimal results, the finishing process is done in stages: from coarse abrasive → fine → pre-polishing → final polishing.
Metal has been the basis of jewelry since ancient times. Understanding the structure, behavior and possibilities of each type of metal means working more informed and creatively. At Artkimia, we believe that learning traditional techniques is the basis for innovating and creating freely.
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