New toy

I'm very excited to have a new toy to play with. My single barrel Lortone Tumbler arrived last week and I've finally had the time to unpack it and have a play!

I'm generally very bad at spending big amounts of money, and because I'm not a full time silversmith I find it hard to justify spending large amounts of money on tools. For example, I was SO close to spending £400 on a rolling mill a few months ago but chickened out at the last minute. However this time I figured that a tumbler was such an important tool that I would be crazy not to invest. So £170 later, that's what I've done and I'm so glad I did.

This simple machine will not only polish my pieces saving me a lot of time doing it by hand, but it will also work-harden the silver so (for example) ear wires will become stronger and less likely to bend out of shape. There will still be a lot of hand polishing though - you can't put resin in there so I'll still be finishing those designs by hand. As for everything else...

I just love owning tools!