Anti clastic pliers

Does anyone know where I can buy some specialized pliers for anti
clastic work

Regards,
Mark Williams
Tavares, FL

You can go right to the inventor of the anticlastic pliers at;
http://ganoksin.com/resources/detail-jewelry_tools_by_miland-1531.htm

Mark,

Does anyone know where I can buy some specialized pliers for anti
clastic work 

Try Jewelry Tools by Miland

Linda

Hello Mark,

Does anyone know where I can buy some specialized pliers for anti
clastic work 

I bought a couple pair of their anti-clastic forming pliers earlier
this year and was fairly pleased with them. You may find you need to
modify them a bit to suit your particular needs, I know I did, but
they’re pretty basic tools so it’s not too difficult.

FWIW, I found their service to be quite good. They tend towards
extreme brevity when it comes to writing emails though. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com

Trevor -

In regard to:

I bought a couple pair of their anti-clastic forming pliers
earlier this year and was fairly pleased with them. You may find
you need to modify them a bit to suit your particular needs, I know
I did, but they're pretty basic tools so it's not too difficult. 

What modifications did you need to make?

I bought a pair of their largest anti-clastic forming pliers last
year and donated another pair to last year’s Orchid dinner silent
auction in Tucson.

I do use them for a line of etched silver bracelets I’m selling, but
I have been disappointed with them in one regard: despite what it
says on Miland’s Web site, the pliers DO leave marks on the silver. I
noticed that the rounded side of the pliers was not mirror-finished,
and was in fact, quite rough and pitted. I sent e-mail to Miland
inquiring about that and was told that there was a solution which
they would send me in the mail. What I received was some foam disks
with adhesive on one side. What I expected was to have my pitted
pliers replaced with pliers with the expected mirror finish. So I use
them, and am grateful for them, but I have to say that I am
disappointed with the marks that it leaves.

Also, Otto Frei carries a line of anti-clastic forming pliers. I
bought a small one - no pits - but I haven’t used in production yet.

Linda

Hello Mark,

You now know how to get the anticlastic pliers from Miland Suess. If
you go to Tucson, be sure to find his booth at Electric Park (at
least that was the location last year) and meet him. He has also
come to the Orchid dinner and donated some wonderful tools to the
silent auction. The tools have been hotly contested in bidding wars.
Miland is one cool dude. I think he enjoys the process of developing
a tool more than anything. Way to go Miland!

Judy in Kansas

Hello Linda,

What modifications did you need to make?... So I use them, and am
grateful for them, but I have to say that I am disappointed with
the marks that it leaves. 

The ones I ordered didn’t have the pitted finish problem that yours
did, thankfully. I would think a little clean-up and re-polishing
would solve that, no? But I agree, it’s a drag to have the problem in
the first place.

As to the pliers making little dents in the metal you are forming and
the sticky plastic pads not doing much to overcome that I’d have to
say that my experience was pretty much exactly the same. My first step
was to cut some disks out of fairly thick leather --3mm tooling
leather if I’m not mistaken-- and glue those on the ball side of the
jaws with rubber cement. Voila, no marks! And the leather disks stood
up to use and abuse much better than the plastic ones did. But then I
decided I actually liked the marks after all and so don’t use the
leather pads much anymore.

The mods that I made to my pliers were mostly a matter of
specializing them for my particular purposes. I found that the
forming side of the pliers --that is the side that the ball jaw fits
into-- were too large and therefore restrictive for my tastes. I
think they’re large to help you form a full circle but I didn’t find
that useful because I wanted to form much tighter circles. So I cut
most of the forming side off leaving only a short segment on the
plier’s jaw itself. This made them much more versatile… and I’ve
been able to use the section I cut off as a forming block in and of
itself so I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I’ll have to check out the forming pliers that you mentioned Otto
Frei offers. If it’s like the other stuff I’ve purchased from them
then I’ll bet they’re pretty good.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com

Linda,

I do use them for a line of etched silver bracelets I'm selling,
but I have been disappointed with them in one regard: despite what
it says on Miland's Web site, the pliers DO leave marks on the
silver. I noticed that the rounded side of the pliers was not
mirror-finished, and was in fact, quite rough and pitted. 

I have come to realize that many if not most tools come to us still
needing modification. I have never bought a pair of pliers that had a
mirror finish, from any manufacturer. I just finished the JT
Intensive program at Revere Academy, and we spent the entire first
day learning about and modifying tools and equipment. We sanded and
polished pliers and hammers, and lined bow-closing pliers in copper,
all to prevent marring the metal. Nobody knows why manufacturers
don’t do this for us. I think that Miland does more in this regard
than anyone else - but then again their tools are handmade by people
who know jewelry. I have a pair of cutters from them that I’m very
happy with. I may very well buy anticlastic pliers from them in the
near future, and I realize that I likely will have to bring up a
mirror finish myself.

warm regards,
Laurie Cavanaugh