Product Review: Eurotool Handy Flame Torch

A year and a half ago, I wrote a post here on the Art Jewelry Elements blog about the Sterno Culinary Torch and why I liked it for jewelry making. Since then, I'm sorry to say I've fallen a little out of love with the Sterno model - maybe it's because we use the heck out of these in the studio, but I found I was having to replace them every six months or so when the strikers just stopped sparking.

Our insurance carrier is happier when we don't have tanks around and therefore charges us less on our liability insurance, so I was still sold on the idea of using a larger culinary torch. Unfortunately, I was having a heck of a time finding a sturdy, reliable replacement for the Sterno. I visited local kitchen supply stores and ordered likely candidates from Amazon, but they were either very flimsy or had flamethrower-like qualities that made them unsuitable for jewelry work. (Seriously: check out the keywords on this torch from Amazon. Flamethrower.)

Then Eurotool announced they were introducing their own version of these torches. I ordered one immediately, keeping my fingers crossed it was going to be what I'd been looking for, and when it arrived I wasted no time putting it through its paces.

I've used this torch for all my work for the last month, and have done everything from large work to chain links to fine 20 gauge prongs. I'm pleased to say it has handled every bit of it with ease. Here are some of the things I really like about it:

The flame on the Eurotool version (front in both pics) is longer, tighter and crisper than the Sterno version. This makes it a little easier to manage the heat control issues.

The Sterno screws onto the butane canister - and to be honest, this always gives students a bit of a fit in class. You have to hold the collar and twist the top of the torch more than a full revolution to tighten it down, and there's a moment where the gas starts hissing. For brand new, never-done-this-before students, that can sometimes freak them out a little bit, and fitting the collar onto the can takes a bit of practice.

By contrast, the Eurotool torch has a simple tab fitting that fits cleanly and intuitively into the slot on top of the canister. Locking it in place can be done with one hand, and requires less than a quarter turn with no gas release. This is a minor design issue, of course, but for a teaching studio the simpler the better.

The biggest consideration, though, is consistency. This torch sparks every single time and the trigger pull is crisp and short. It's also much, much lighter in weight than the Sterno - though still solidly made - and combined with the shorter trigger pull makes for less hand fatigue over a full day of working with it. I did every bit of soldering on this piece with the Eurotool torch, right down to the fine link soldering.

So: I'm a fan. If you're looking for a culinary torch to add to your bench, you might want to consider this one. It's priced to be competitive with the Sterno and although I may be proven wrong in the long run, I think it will outlast them in a studio environment.

Until next time -

Full disclosure: I am a Eurotool dealer. I was not compensated in any way to test, review or recommend this product, and none of the links in this post are affiliate or commission-paid links.

Tools we can use: Square

I am finally getting settled back into my (more or less) normal routine after teaching at Glass Craft Expo in Las Vegas. I taught four very full classes over four days, and had the best time - my students were terrific and the venue and management staff were incredibly organized, accommodating, and thoughtful. I really could not have asked for a better experience.

One of the things I had to plan for in getting ready for this show was taking payment for materials fees and the tools and other things I'd brought for sale. I haven't had an online shop in a while (more about that in a minute), haven't done shows in even longer, and haven't done much selling when I am on the road. So.... I had to revisit the Square, which had been sitting in my desk drawer gathering dust for weeks months years.

source

Amazingly, my account was still open and still linked to the right bank account. All I had to do was update some contact info and my logo and I was ready to go.

In the time since I've been gone, Square has made some improvements... significant improvements.

For starters, they've greatly expanded the "staff" mode, making it much easier to get help when you need it without sharing passcodes and log-ins. And you can fine-tune access as well, so that helpers only get to work with the stuff you want them to.

Since I brought a teaching assistant with me, this was enormously helpful. Even more helpful was that I was able to use the Excel spreadsheet I'd used for planning purposes as an upload for all my inventory and pricing, so there was no duplication of effort - and although that process did take two separate steps, it was super easy and fast.

Square has also greatly expanded its reporting capabilities:

I was extremely impressed with the range of reports available in their free account - lots of opportunities to dig down and get a picture of what's going on with your sales.

And inventory management is great too:

Square allows you to accept cash and checks, too, not just credit cards, even if you're not using a connected cash drawer. 

And if a customer wants to pay some cash and some other form of payment, you can do that too.

The Square worked fast and flawlessly, even when we had spotty cell reception. Ringing up the students was as simple as just touching an inventory or item entry, or adding one on the fly - which was also fast. And promptly at 5:00 every afternoon, Square bundled up all that day's sales, deducted their fees (which are a super-affordable 2.75%) and deposited them in my bank, where the funds were immediately available the next day. Automatically.

I didn't discover until I got home that Square also allows you to send invoices:

There are all sorts of other features I haven't played with yet, including a for-fee feature that allows you to use Square as the place to capture customer information for marketing purposes and an app that connects Square directly to our Quickbooks file so you don't have to do any kind of duplicate entry. And there's apparently an embed function that allows you to post things for sale on your own website and then direct people to Square to make the purchase. Square also hosts Square Market, where you can post items for sale if you don't want to create your own website, and with things going south over in Easy-Land, lots of folks are looking for alternatives (including me, because it is way past time for me to get my stuff together and create an actual online shop). Best part of that deal? No listing fees, just the usual processing fees when you make a sale. 

The bottom line is that in addition to kicking butt on the road for a fraction of other credit card processors, Square has the potential to combine a number of different business functions in one place and creating all sorts of efficiencies. And frankly, I can use all the extra time I can get! If you're looking for a way to accept payments on the road or online, I highly recommend checking out the Square. I'll report back if I add any of their premium features and let you know how they work for me.

Until next time -

Product Review: Rolling Mill Resource

I recently had the great privilege of spending a week in the home studio of metalsmith Melissa Muir. It was a working trip - I am helping her with some photos for her upcoming book about the hydraulic press - but we found plenty of time to play. Among other things, Melissa introduced me to texture papers from Rolling Mill Resource.... and I fell hard in love with the rolling mill all over again. I placed my own order after I got home and finally had the chance to sit down and play with it about 10 days ago.

I am so thrilled with this product that I could not wait to share it with you! Aside from superb customer service (which seems to be in short supply these days), Tracey from Rolling Mill Resource stocks an eclectic assortment of patterns and designs in a variety of sizes. The cost is reasonable, too - small sheets start at $2.50 and options go all the way up to large sheets for $12.60. My first order (shown above) included some small shape templates and - to my surprise - a very generous package of sample designs for testing in my rolling mill.  My second order included even more samples to play with before I committed my paid designs to the metal.

The designs are deeply laser cut into heavyweight paper - the brown patterns in the photos above are the recessed areas, which are crisp and clean even where there is a lot of fine detail. Tracey's free downloadable instructions are super easy to follow and give a great overview of the mechanics of roll printing that's very helpful in learning the process. I invited a couple of my more advanced metals students to have a play date in the studio with me yesterday so we could experiment with the patterns, and even for those who had never worked with a rolling mill before, the results were uniformly excellent. I don't think we got a bad roll print all day!

This is one of my favorites - and it's on a particularly thick piece of copper. The print is perfect.

I also love the subtle matte texture the uncut sections of paper leave on the metal.

Once we printed up a bunch of metal, we used some of the Rolling Mill Resource templates to make some components.

We had such a good time! And although we didn't wind up doing anything ground-breaking with the components we made, it was fun to experiment with shapes and patterns, and everyone left with lots of metal to play with at home.

My friend Dawn's earrings, using a harlequin pattern from Rolling Mill Resource

My earrings using Mikel's Flower pattern from Rolling Mill Resource

If texturing metal and roll printing interests you, Melissa has an excellent video on the difference between the embossing achieved in a hydraulic press and roll printing in a rolling mill. She also has a video on the process of roll printing which will give you a good look at how it works. And when you're ready to try some paper patterns, you won't be sorry if you start with the excellent selection at Rolling Mill Resource. You can even get them to convert your own photos to custom textures, something I plan to try very soon, and although I haven't tried any this way, the patterns are also suitable for use with metal clay.

It's such a pleasure to come across an artist who not only provides top-of-the-line customer service but also an excellent and original product. I have amassed a fairly substantial collection of their patterns in a short amount of time, and I am really looking forward to experimenting more with them. I have some ideas... now where did I put that extra time I was saving?

Until next time -

Edited to add: This is not a sponsored post, and I received no compensation from Rolling Mill Resource for featuring their products. I paid for the patterns I received, and my opinion is based solely on my personal experience with them. Melissa Muir is a personal friend, and all her videos are free to everyone on YouTube.

Product Review: Green Lion Studios Saw Frame

Like most of you, I'd heard the buzz about the Green Lion Studios saw frame last year - lots of people talking about it, raving about it, getting on waiting lists to buy it. But honestly, as beautiful as the saw is, there were other things (tools, TOOLS!!) I wanted to spend my money on and I didn't see the point.

Sorry about the poor lighting - it was night-time!

Until earlier this summer, when a student brought one to an introductory sawing class so she could learn why she kept breaking saw blades. I took it for a spin, of course, because it was there... and I was smitten. Unfortunately, there weren't any available on the Green Lion site and with a house move looming, I put the purchase aside for another time. Several weeks later, my student called me (thank you Dottie!) to say that BJ Johnson - creator of the frame - was putting a limited number of saw frames on his website and then... no more for a while, since he had other things percolating this summer. I jumped at the opportunity and bought my very own before they all sold out.

And I am so happy I did. It is so light and perfectly balanced that sawing with it is nearly effortless - and I do a lot of sawing. A. Lot. After playing with it for a few weeks, here are some things I think you should know if you're considering a purchase.

Loading the Blade

Traditional jeweler's saw frames may or may not come with a tensioning screw at the top of the frame. The Green Lion saw doesn't have one - it's all one piece of steel.

I never used the tensioning screw on my old saw frame anyway, since I learned to load a blade without one, so this wasn't a big deal for me. I just load the top of the blade, brace the Green Lion saw in my bench pin, line up the bottom of the blade, and I'm good to go.

Please ignore my very messy bench. Yikes.

A properly loaded blade should make a high-pitched "ping" when you pluck it - like a piano wire.

And if I'm being honest, I never really liked the little moveable squares of metal inside the thumb screw of the standard frame - they would get turned around or jammed and they collected dirt and metal fragments like nobody's business. The Green Lion saw has perfect little round bases at the bottom of each thumb screw - clean and smooth.

Using the Right Grip

Of all the differences to me between the Green Lion and traditional saw frames, the handle was the most significant.

I had become very accustomed to using a loose grip I learned from Thomas Mann, a true master of the art of sawing. (If you ever get a chance to take a class with him, I highly recommend it!) The larger bottom on the Green Lion's handle and the lack of a "waist" into which I could set my grip meant I had to make some adjustments in order to keep my hand and wrist loose. I'll admit to some hand fatigue until I became completely adjusted to the change, but it isn't a long-term issue - just muscle memory becoming re-educated. The fatter bottom is actually a help in keeping the blade perfectly perpendicular - maybe it's just me, but with the smaller handle, I have a tendency to let the arm ride back on the down stroke. With the larger handle, my ring and pinkie fingers stay more open on the downstroke - and that makes it less likely they'll pull my wrist up - and the blade back - at the bottom of the stroke.

Action shots, courtesy of my husband Nick!

See? Perfectly straight, even around the curves - and let me tell you, that wasn't always the case with my technique!

Not Adjustable

Standard saw frames have a height adjustment at the back of the frame - and if I'm being honest, this is not a feature I ever really used.

I've heard of people shortening the frame to use broken blades as files in tight areas, but it's not a technique I've spent any time developing... and besides I still have plenty of these standard frames around if I ever decide I want to give it a try.

So... the bottom line? At $45, this is a terrific investment in a quality tool that will last you a long time and will help you be better at an essential skill in jewelry making.

And psssst: at the time I'm writing this, there are 100 saws available on the Green Lion site. Don't wait!

Until next time -

(This is not a sponsored post and I don't get anything for recommending Green Lion saws to you - I just really like the product!)