Filing The interior Spaces for Making Jewelry

Video Transcript

"I am DJ Poye, professional jeweler and gemologist and I am here today on behalf of Expert Village. Okay, here we go once again. And now we are focused on the filing of the inside of the pieces that we removed and also on the outside. And we will do different odds again. We will start with a file that will be a little bit more of a heavier texture to take the bigger pieces down and then we will move to a smaller file that will really smooth the metal down. We will start out with the center holes at first and then we will work to the exterior next making to where we really round out the center ones to make it to where it is a nice pretty. Okay, this is a half round file as you can tell. It is just like a half a circle and flat on one side. Basically, what we are going to do is we are going to start filing with this half round circle file to the very center sections here. And as you file you move away from you with a movement. You want to be able to go against the grain, but kind of at a angle because if the piercing lines of the saw are straight, if you hit them straight it is going to take you longer to get the metal down to where it needs to be. But if you go at an angle it is much quicker and smoother. So as you can tell I am focused and I am focused at a slight angle. Once again you see that motion that I do at an angle and then you carry that motion basically on around the piece. Now I can see by what I am doing in the center here that I am really taking that metal down. And you just keep on going around the piece. And you can hold this in a ring clamp which is a small device for rings or anything else, but I find that if the piece is a little bit bigger like this piece is you do not really need a ring clamp. Sometimes you do if it is smaller, but basically what this will do is it just allows you to move around with the piece and hold it. And this half round is really doing me justice here. I am really seeing a lot of work. I am seeing a lot of the metal come away and a lot smoother metal coming into view here. And sometimes like I said, once again, with your saw blade you can't make a perfect circle all the time so what you can end up doing with this half round file is you can fix that to make it to where it is a lot more rounded. That is what makes these saw blades so nice. And then other times is you don't want it so perfect, like this little hole is kind of different, then it is okay you don't have to. That is what makes the whole focus of having a custom made piece is that it is not always maybe perfect, but that is what the beauty of it is, is that it is just hand made every step of the way. In my early years I had to make things so perfect. I feel that I want to make things more organic now and be able to have more freedom with my pieces. And maybe the piece itself wants to be a different way than you want it to be."