There is a special power to many of these tools, as they were passed on to my studio from a retired silversmith now in his 80s. I am sure that some were passed on to him as well. The power of previous people’s labor still lives in them.
I often use traditional techniques in my own work and hand tools are very closely connected to my work and body. They function as an extension of my own hands. My hands are my most useful tools and an instrument that I sometimes push to its full constraint.
