The proper hand to hold your torch

Hi Julia;

I think we may have covered this topic before. I’m left handed and
hold the torch in my right hand as I use my left hand to manipulate
tweezers holding heads, pieces of wire, etc., to position for
soldering. Usually, one uses their less articulate hand for the
torch, especially when holding pieces to be soldered. If you work in
this manner long enough, you’ll use the same hand for the torch even
if the pieces are stationary and nothing is being applied because
that’s what you’ll be used to.

David L. Huffman

The very best solution is to become ambidextrous with the torch. Why
not develop the ability to use a torch with either hand, regardless
of which is the dominant hand?

Sometimes the dominant hand needs to control the torch for very
precise soldering or delicate annealing. Sometimes the dominant hand
needs to position an item or manipulate a tool, such as pouring
molten metal from a crucible.

This seems like a ridiculous debate since the ability to use either
hand is twice as good as the use of only one or the other.

Michael David Sturlin
www.goldcrochet.com
www.michaeldavidsturlin.com

In the studio where I do bench time, the torches at the work stations
are set to our left. At home, my torch is also on the left side of my
work station. However, there is no ‘right and wrong’ to it. You may
want to hold your torch in your left hand and control your work piece
or your soldering aid with your right hand, or vice-versa. Do what
feels most comfortable to you. Being ambidextrous, I pretty much
switch hands depending on what I’m doing. The important thing is
getting the job done right, regardless of which hand holds the torch.

Dee

I have been reading with interest about the “correct” way to hold a
torch. As a novice and self teacher, I adapted the to the left hand
holding the torch allowing my dominate hand to manipulate my pick. Is
this correct? IMHO it comes down to what one feels comfortable with
and what the situation calls for… orthodoxy is just dogma disguised
as proper technique in this case.

Dear Richard & Julia:

We do quite a number of torch installations in the jewelry industry.
The traditional method for the installation and use of a hand torch
in the jewelry industry is to install the torch on the less dominant
side, leaving the dominant hand free for more precise requirements.
Typically to add solder in whatever form needed, hold a piece turn a
piece, or turntable if used, add flux as needed usually by brush.
Over time this seems the best method, though it might seem
uncomfortable in the very beginning. This allows the dominant hand,
the most accurate hand to do the most accurate and difficult tasks
instead of holding the torch. This is how it should be. There are
important variables. A high percentage of jewelers are left handed
or ambidextrous. So if left handed they should, in theory install the
torch handpiece on their right side. This might cause some
difficulties, say in a line or group of bench workers. Our NYC
installations come to mind. A good number of left handers adjust to
right hand situations in their life, including torch installations.
If you need any additional please feel free to contact
me directly at the number below.

Best Regards,

Gary

Gary W. Miller
Sr. Technical Advisor
Spirig Advanced Technologies, Inc.
www.spirig.org

I don’t’ think it matters. Do what is comfortable. I eat with only
my fork in my left hand (I’m right handed), fork tines down, no
switching. I was taught this way, British style.

I use my dominant hand for soldering because it is comfortable. I
also do a lot of granulation and for that, I really want my dominant
hand. I’ve learned to pick and move with my left, but sometimes, I
need the right hand to move some picky wire in exactly a certain
spot.

What is important is not what hand you use your torch, but how you
hold it.

For the larger Smith air/acetylene handpieces, bring your hand up
underneath and have the handle balance between your thumb and index
finger. The weight is reduced, thus aiding you in concentrating on
your soldering/annealing This will remove the “flying elbow”. The
torch tip points directly at the work and not an angle which does not
allow for maximum heat.

Ergonomics at your workspace makes all the difference on your work.
If you are tired and achy from not sitting correctly, you concentrate
more on your pains than the work.

-k

M E T A L W E R X
School for Jewelry and the Metalarts
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
781 891 3854
www.metalwerx.com

I say use your dominant hand. 

I most heartily disagree and I urge students to try using their
non-dominant hand to hold the torch. This allows your “smart” hand to
hold a pick, probe or pair of tweezers.

Andy

Use whichever is easiest for you. Some of my right-handed friends
(have learned to) use the torch left-handed, so the dominant right
hand is free for placing solder, etc.

Margaret

Julia,

After learning to use the torch w/ my dominant hand many years ago,
I joined a class a few years ago taught by a master jeweler that was
taught to become a goldsmith in Thailand from age 7.

He convinced me to switch the torch to my left hand so that I could
manipulate the solder pic, solder, adding more flux, holding the
piece, checking the joins, etc. w/ my right (dominant). It was very
uncomfortable at the beginning, but I saw the logic behind it and
kept trying. It’s amazing how comfortable it is today and my right
hand is now busy helping the process along during soldering.

I’ve experimented and reversed the operation and liken the feeling
to feet w/ the wrong shoes on, handlebars on a bike backwards; you
get the picture.

My left hand is now the “dominant” one when it comes to
holding/applying the torch. My right can do the tiny little stuff
while soldering.

Give it a try. You may love it after a few weeks.

Kay Taylor

I carried this torch holding method in to a welding class where
the teacher said he had never seen a welder hold the torch with his
left had but my results were good enough to leave me alone about
it. 

Hah! I had the exact same thing happen, but it bugged my instructor
so much, I finally gave in and put the welding torch in my right
hand to shut him up!

Noel

Orchid always has a way of generating discussion on a topic that I
was just wondering about.

I have been learning how to oxy-weld and one evening realised that I
hold the torch in my right hand for this, using the left to hold the
welding rod. But - when I am soldering silver I hold the torch in my
left and use my right to manipulate the piece, solder or whatever it
is, for the most part. I am right-handed.

I think the suggestions that “it depends” and “learn to become
ambidextrous” are good ones. There is no right way, as long as it
works.

I am in a heated debate with a jeweler friend over what hand is the
proper one to hold your torch in if you are right handed. 

I say use your dominant hand. Duh. You’ll do better that way.

I am right handed, most of my soldering is with torch in left hand,
I use a solder pick a lot, and it is most always in my right hand. I
heat just about every little piece of solder into a ball, and apply
them to the piece until I have all I need, and then torch the whole
piece till solder flows. I prefer to have the solder ball in contact
with both parts that are to be joined, I get much better joints that
way. On joints where the solder can jump onto one part that has
texture where I do not want solder, as I am heating the piece when I
get close to flow temp, I push the solder with my pick to squash it
down, and it goes exactly where I need it to go. Also when I have a
thick and thin piece, I heat the thick part, and move the solder
toward the thin part as the solder gets slushy. I use hard solder
for bezels, and the way I solder I can use hard solder to solder the
bezel to the base without the bezel joint melting by heating the work
from underneath.

Richard Hart

Michael,

I have been reading with interest about the "correct" way to hold
a torch. As a novice and self teacher, I adapted the to the left
hand holding the torch allowing my dominate hand to manipulate my
pick. Is this correct? IMHO it comes down to what one feels
comfortable with and what the situation calls for... orthodoxy is
just dogma disguised as proper technique in this case. 

Ah, nice to see another novice/self teacher out there! I am exactly
the same and I too have developed an ambidextrous technique
depending on the job in hand. If an unruly piece of solder is
determined to jump off the work and needs constantly putting back in
its place, I solder with the torch in my left hand (I’m right
handed). Or if the joint I’m working on happens to be around to the
left and is best approached that way, I also use my left hand.

Perhaps being formally taught to only use one hand or the other (the
dominant hand) is (could be) a bad thing?

Helen Hill

I most heartily disagree and I urge students to try using their
non-dominant hand to hold the torch. This allows your "smart" hand
to hold a pick, probe or pair of tweezers. 

I once subbed for another teacher and a student was nearly in tears
for her lack of ability to use her left hand. We have to be
flexible.

And I don’t need to use an extra hand to move things around, because
I’ve done such a good job of setting up my soldering job, it doesn’t
need nudging. : )

Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay

I was thinking about this post and wondering why I always solder
with my right hand and couldn’t imagine switching to my left. Just
the thought of soldering with my left hand makes me feel insecure. It
suddenly occurred to me that its because I don’t see well from my
left eye and that I do all of my cutting, grinding and soldering from
the right hand side. I never thought seriously about that before.

Ever since I was a child I have had a lazy left eye. Depth
perception has always been a problem for me and I seem to have
developed a lot of ways around it, but for the most part I’ve been
unaware of its influence on my craftwork. Over the last few years the
vision in my “good” eye began tochange and I’ve found myself working
harder to keep control of my work. There are some techniques that I
never have been good at and for a long time I assumed that I just
hadn’t master the skills to do what other craftsmen seemed to do
with ease. In hindsight I now know that my vision problem was always
there and that I never understood how impaired I was. To some extent
this was because I started jewellery work very young and developed
ways of working and seeing that compensated for my eye problem and
ironically gave me advantages with form and shape judgment and the
ability to draw 3 dimensionally very well. I suspect it has something
to do with using edge definition and shape memory as a substitute for
depth perception.

Apparently “lazy” or amblyopic eye effects about 3% of the
population, as a child I wore a patch for a while but abandoned it in
school and lost the possi bility to repair my vision. Now in my late
50s I’m beginning to regret my childhood carelessness. So here’s a
thought for parents, if you have a child with a bad eye, get it
checked out and it is amblyopic make sure they wear a patch over
their good eye for as long as it takes, no matter how difficult it
is.

For me I guess I’ll keep soldering from right to left, diagonally.

Dennis Smith - the-one-eyed-Jewelmaker

and lost the possibility to repair my vision. 

I have a lazy right eye. My doctor told me it is still possible to
have corrective surgery, wherein they basically snip a muscle to pull
the eye back to center. I’d have to deal with double vision for
several months until I retrained my brain to function with the ‘new’
eye. Too much trouble for me, thanks.

I also have an astigmatism which took many years to compensate well
for. He also told me I could have lasik but I opted not to because
while the risk is small statistically, I can’t afford to be the one
in a thousand who has a problem.

But I look on the bright side, a lazy eye gives you a wider field of
view, good thing for motorcycling and glasses give me a place to hang
my Behr loupe.