Another craft cut from a brass plate, by hand. This one tries to be rather delicate and not too bulky, and the coin shows a bit the scale of it.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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What tool do you use to cut brass so delicately by hand?
A jeweler's saw, with blades that are extremely thin. Here's a picture, even though it doesn't show the scale very much
Wow thanks, very cool. What do you use to smooth and polish the edges, a file?
I have a rotary tool with polishing bits, and the ones I use are sort of abrasive plastic spirals that graze the edges and smooth them out (the edges are not perfectly smooth because I like to keep some of the "roughness" of the saw cuts).
I use a file when I want to make adjustments, for example to smooth out a curve or a straight line that is not as accurate as I like
Thanks for explaining, very impressive, did you use a drill then file for the hole in the curving tail? And scoring the wings, do you have a stamp or little metal carving tools? It all came out so smooth, how long have you been carving metal like that?
Every "hole" in the design is done by piercing a small hole with tiny drill bits (generally, I use ones that are 0.7mm), then passing one end of the blade through the hole before attaching it to the saw. The blade is then "trapped" in the hole and you can cut out the shape from the "inside" (I'm not sure how much sense my description makes, I'm not very good at explaining things)
So the lines in the wings and the hole of the tail are all made with this same process. This is actually the part that takes the longest, cutting the various shapes is relatively fast, but each hole inside the design requires detaching the blade, passing it through, reattaching it to the saw, and adjusting the tension (which is very important, and funnily enough is done in good part by listening to the pitch of the noise the blade makes when flicked). One of the most tedious crafts I've made was this one, simply because of the amount of holes (the pattern is not mine, I just printed it and used it like that):
I don't know how long exactly, it's been years since I started but it's just been a hobby so I have been pretty irregular in how much I do it. It's definitely less complicated than it looks (the technique I'm using of cutting a metal plate, not jewelry making in general), the biggest requirement is a bit of accuracy and focus, and the tools (which I was lucky to have access to, when I wanted to start).
Oh wow, I wouldn't have guessed you could get that level of detail and accuracy with the same saw blade, the holes are as well crafted and deliberate as the outlines, amazing!
Thanks for explaining the different processes, it's fascinating. The end results are truly a more than the sum of its parts kind of thing. I look forward to seeing any other pieces you share here!
Thank you for the kind words!