Reply To: Tweezers repair

[tmac1956]

Davidjm:

I bent a pair of mine recently trying to remove a pocket watch stem from the center piece of the case at an angle. The space to grab hold of the thing was too small for even my smallest beading pliers, so I started flailing away before thinking and splayed out my tweezers tips – and still didn’t get the stem to move. Luckily, the tweezers were cheapies so it didn’t really matter. However, I learned a lesson from that as well as how to straighten and stone tweezers. I have since gotten a set made by Stella that I really like. You cannot beat the quality for the price. They’re not high end, but will serve well for general work.

I immediately bought some tiny stainless steel forceps (straight and curved), which worked great for both disassembly and reassembly. I might not ever use them again, but they will certainly be there for this stem situation should I ever encounter it again. Clearly, I wouldn’t use these on anything that might be scored by these. I might grind the teeth off just to allow me to use them for other tasks.

David Pierce:
It sounds like I need a Dumont #5!

Later,
Tom