In this tutorial, jewelry maker Haiyi Tan documents the process of creating a custom wooden forming stake to shape a sterling‑silver "metal nail." Unsatisfied with existing metal stakes, he selects a piece of hard hardwood from a kitchen base unit and uses its natural ridges as a template. To speed up the initial straight cuts, he demonstrates the WorkPro cordless mini circular saw, explains blade changes, and shows the laser guide in action, noting the cut is clean and takes under a minute compared to an hour with a jeweler’s hand saw. After the straight sections are cut, he refines the profile with a jeweler’s saw and files, adding a groove not present on the steel version. He then heats the silver, strikes it on the wooden stake while the stake is clamped in a bench vise with a protective cloth, and uses a wall‑high mallet to form the nail. Throughout, he comments on his limited woodworking experience, the unknown wood species, and the experimental nature of the project, inviting viewer feedback on tool choices for curved cuts. The video concludes with a brief showcase of the finished silver nail and a link to a related ring‑restoration video.
Chapters
From time to time, I have to make my own tools to accomplish the job. Like today, I am in the middle of making myself a fake metal nail in sterling silver. No matter how hard I try, I just couldn't get the exact shape I wanted. As you can see, it broke a little bit on my thumb. That's when these kinds of forming states should come in handy. They are quite close to what I want, but not exactly how I want them. So based on the shapes of these two forming states, I'm going to try to make one how I want it to be. Plus, this is a good excuse to try my new mini circular saw. This is a random piece of wood I found at my place. I believe it used to be a section of base unit in my kitchen. I'm not going to pretend I have very minimal knowledge of woodworking. All I know is that I need a piece of hardwood for what I want to make, and this is the hardest one I can find. There are two ridges on my wood. By chance, each of them is exactly the same width as the narrow stake I have here. I am going to cut that out and use it to make my wooden stake. Because this is hard wood, if I use my jeweler's hand saw to cut it to this size, It's going to take me more than an hour. Plus, I won't be able to make the cut straight. So I'm going to try the WorkPro mini circular saw I got recently. It's cordless. This is ideal to handle a job like this. As you know by now, I work with jewelry. To cut a piece of wood like this, I normally get help. Because it's brand new, we need to change for the wide cutting disc for this wood. It's our first time using it, but by following the instructions, it's quite simple to change the blade. To hold the wood, we fix it on the portable workbench. There's a button on the top of the saw. Once it's on, it shines a red laser line on the surface we are about to cut. We find this guide very useful in this case, especially as we are only eyeballing it. In case you don't know, this is our first time using a circular saw. It would have taken me over an hour to cut if I use my jeweler's saw. This takes less than 30 seconds. The cut is sharp and straight. I'm impressed. I won't be able to achieve a cut like this by hand. After the first cut, we are confident about the second one. As the rain has stopped, we are doing this outdoors at this point, but by the time we finish, It's raining again, so we have to move back to the garage. This is how it looks next to one of the 4 main stakes I have. Before the final cut, I copy the shape of the steel stake onto the side of the wood to use as a reference later. This is where the final cut goes. To make it easier for you to see, I mark it again with a Sharpie. This mini circular saw is so easy to use. By the time we are making the third cut, This tool makes us feel like a pro already. If you are interested in this tool, the link is in the description below. The cut is nice and clean. This is exactly how I want the wood to be. The experience with the WorkPro mini circular saw is very positive. For the rest of the shape, I have to cut it with my jeweler's saw here. I haven't exaggerated. This took me over 30 minutes to cut. But I'm not a pro for woodwork. This is the only tool I have to cut this here. For woodwork, I know you guys know better. Do let me know in the comments below which tool is the best for cutting a curved line. On a small piece of hard wood like this. Next, I copy the shape of the steel stake onto my wood from the top. Because I am quite close to the shape I need, I only use files for this final stage. By the way, I still don't know what kind of wood this is and what is the best wood for making something like this. For the time being, I'm going ahead to make one with whatever I have here and see what the forming stake turns out. This is an experiment. If the wooden stake doesn't work, I will learn from this process. Once I am happy with the profile from the top, I want a groove in the middle of the stake in a side stud the steel version doesn't have. All these details are the reason why I am making my own version of the forming stake in wood. I don't have much experience of woodworking. The way I'm approaching this is totally based on my experience in working with precious metals and my very limited collection of tools for working with wood. As you can see, I'm even making this on my jewelry workbench, and I feel it's way too dusty to do it this way. If there was no storm outside at the moment, I would have done this in my garden. I wish I have more experience in working with wood. This is what I have after filing my wooden stake for about 30 minutes. Before trying this, I'm heating up my silver to make it as soft as possible before striking it on the wood. Outside is very bright today. I put a spare crucible in front of my metal nail to block the light so I can see it easily when my silver turns dark orange. Before moving on, I move it to a block of steel to let it cool down to room temperature. I hold the wooden stake with my heavy-duty bench vise. To reduce the chance of leaving a mark on the wood, I put a cloth between the wooden stake and the vise. I'm using my wall-high mallet here. You can also use a plastic mallet if you have one. My mallet is much bigger than the silver I'm striking, so I'm only hitting it with the corner. I still don't know the type of this wood, but I'm quite happy that with the help of the cloth, My bench vise hasn't left a mark on the wooden stake. Looking back, if there is one thing I want to improve, I will keep this bit on to strengthen the structure of my wooden stake and save time. This is how my silver nail looks after striking it on the wooden stake. I make myself. I quite like this colour, so I'm going to keep it as it is. When I wear it, I'm going to put it on with some nail glue. Not all experiments work out, but I do learn no matter the outcome. If you like this video, you might also want to check out the one here. It shows how I restore a ring that was caught in an accident. I will see you in the next video.
