Goldsmithing Skills and Tools – Filing

JUNE 6, 2018

Welcome back!

Continuing with our guided tour of key goldsmithing skills and tools, in a perfect world piercing is as exact as possible and cleanly removes any excess metal from the piece of jewellery that is being handcrafted. That said, a lot of the time, files are the next tools of choice for shaping precious metals. And what a world of choice there is!….

Like many other tools, files are graded in size, fineness and shape. The array of nooks and crannies that you may need to get a file into is infinite! As a result, files can be very long, coarse and heavy at one end of the spectrum and tiny, fine and very lightweight at the other end of the scale. The smallest files possible are called escapement files.

Not surprisingly, there are standard shapes for files ranging from perfectly round to one that is shaped like a knife’s edge.

Filing can be done in a straight line, like on the ends of our beautiful Balance drop silver and pearl earrings, or in all sorts of curves and angles on the insides and outsides of pieces of jewellery. It is always better to file and check, file a bit more and check again, file and check a third time. It’s very easy to remove metal one step at a time – it’s not so easy to stick it back on if you file too much!

In most cases, filing is a pushing movement, with the file travelling in one direction, away from the body. It can require good arm muscles and a strong wrist. When working on, and leaning into, larger scale pieces, filing is great for core muscles too – who would have thought that making jewellery could be such an intense workout?!

Next time around we will look at emerying, which is the next step when it comes to removing, shaping and smoothing metals – we’ll see you then!