Earring posts: do you have to make earring posts yourself because of
the length required or in an unusual alloy, and ask yourself how to
make fast and nice grooves into the posts? Or you make a clasp and
need a good groove in one of the parts to close well? Take an old side
cutter, introduce a rotating slim diamond bur and close softly the
side cutter according to the diameter of the hole required. You can
thus make several holes into the side cutter according to your needs
and even polish the wholes if you like to.
Gold granulation: have you tried this? Smash a piece of malachite to
powder, mix it with water and tragant or some other natural glue, put
the granules into this thick liquid and carefully place them onto the
base metal, taking care the liquid is exclusively between granules and
base, otherwise nasty spots will appear on the base, as the gold melts
there too.
Hardening steel: When chilly red, put the small steel tool not into
water but into a fresh onion. Temper as usual. With certain steels
this method is quite nice, and: you get appetite for lunch, for it
smells like fried onions (which is what happens, wonder?). Well, you
can find all sorts of tricks (awkward sometimes) in those old manuals
that were published regularly since early 1800.
Protecting stones from not too much heat while soldering: stick the
stone/mounting into a fresh potato. By the time it smells good
(roasted potatoes), you should be done with the soldering, because the
potato is ready to eat and soon the stone cracked.
Have fun,
Michael