Best Work Holding Tool for Beginner Learning Hand Engraving

In my opinion, the most vital tool for beginner learning hand engraving and stone setting is the work holder. It doesn't matter if you are using a pneumatic engraving machine or not. You need a tool that allows you to focus all your attention on building muscle memory of graver movements. A good vise will enable you to focus and have a smoother learning process. The GRS microblock is the one I would choose if I could go back in time and choose again, and I'm not sponsored. Hi, if you're new here, I'm a jeweler, professional optical diamond setter, and a GIA graduate gemologist based in the UK. I have been making jewelry using real gemstones and precious metals since 2003. It has taken me over 20 years to get to this point. In my channel, I talk about anything jewelry related. I have been using this ball vise for more than 15 years now. I do all my stone setting and hand engraving tasks with the help of this ball vise on a daily basis. I will talk about every single part of this vise And I'm going to take the jaws apart to show you the 4 simple but solid structures of this piece of art. This will give you confidence to make up your mind whether you need it or not. If you do, you will have enough information to put it to use straight after it comes out of the box. Overall, this is my favorite workholding tool when doing engraving and stone setting. I use this daily, and I have never ever put any lubricant into any parts of this vise for more than a decade. My studio is about 1 mile away from the sea, so the air here is quite damp and also very salty. This vise still moves as smoothly as this, and there is no rust on any surface at all. It comes with a hex key, 4 pins, 6 screws, and 1 plastic base. The ball vise itself, from top to bottom, contains 4 parts. The first parts are these 2 jaws. There are 24 holes altogether on the top surface. 18 of them are smooth, and the rest have threads on. These 4 pins fit into all the smooth holes on top of this wrench. They can be used for holding onto practice plates when you are doing hand engraving. With the flat surface on the top of each pin, it can actually hold the plate very firmly. Also, this pin only sticks out about 2.5mm, It is quite low profile, which means they are less likely to be in your way when engraving. The 6 screws fit in here. They are for adding different attachments like this. I have another video in my channel specially talking about different attachments. Make sure to check that out. From the top surface of this wrench to the bottom of the flat base, It measures 22mm. That's the maximum you can fit in between these wrenches. For instance, if the ring you are engraving has the outer diameter of no more than 22mm, it will fit inside without any problem. Anything bigger, it will stick out and it will not be supported by the top surface of this wrench. This results in risking bending a thin ring if you push too hard or at the wrong angle. For anything deeper, you will need attachments to help. With the hex key, you can open out and close up both jaws from the center, unlike the handheld vise I talk about in another video, which opens only on one side. These wrenches open up to 50mm wide without dropping off the base. If you carry on unscrewing the vise, the jaws will eventually come off, and you can replace them with other master jaws. If you like this video, do you mind clicking the like button? Thank you. The second part of this vise is the 10mm thread. It sits on the center of the vise to open and close the two jaws above it. The hex key fits on either side, so this vise is suitable for both left-handed and right-handed users. The third part is the lower body of this ball vise. There is no screw to take this into bits. I believe there are some bearings inside. There is one screw on the lower sphere of this ball vise. If you loosen it up completely, the upper part of the ball vise rotates freely. With this screw tightened up, the upper part of the ball vise is fixed. If it is halfway between, you can move the upper part of the ball vise with a little bit of force. So you can control how smoothly you want this to move when working. This is very useful. For instance, when you are practicing engraving straight lines, you might want your plates not moving around. But when you practice engraving curved lines, you might prefer having it rotate freely. In my case, When I engrave Old English fonts, I will have the jaws fixed, but when I engrave script letters, I will have the screw loose. There is other times when you want it somewhere in between. The last part of this vise is a simple plastic ring like this. This entire ball vise sits on top of this base. You can move it around with just one hand. I have found this vise very simple to use. The biggest object I have engraved using this ball vise is some full-size spoons, butter knives, and letter openers in solid sterling silver. For anything bigger, I haven't tried yet.

To put everything back together, seat the 10mm thread back on the base. There is a letter on one side of the nut here. The other end is blank. L is for the left jaw. Make sure the letter goes inside of the hole on the jaw first, and the blank one is facing outwards. Otherwise, the jaws won't go back. You can use your finger to make sure these two holes line up. Line up together. Same for the one on the right. Once both jaws are on the base, give them a little bit of a push to help them get back on the thread. Now they are back in one piece. I like this ball vise so much that I even engraved my YouTube handle on a silver plate to fit into the blank side of this vise. So the GRS logo shows on one end of my vise and my YouTube handle shows on the other. To see how I engraved this plate, check out the link in the description below.

With the help of the 3 attachment sets, I do all my hand engraving and stone setting jobs with this vise on a daily basis. If you want to know how the attachments work, make sure you check out the other video. I will see you in the next one.