By Julia Tauber

In the metalworking department so far we have had tool making classes once a week, which is very useful and also a lot of fun. You can make your tools unique and enjoyable for yourself.

It is very common to buy cheap second-hand tools and bring them back to life as new, different tools. That is how I made a scraper out of an old half-round file. Scrapers are very useful in metalwork, as you can use them to clean soldering lines and unreachable corners.

After grinding and using abrasive paper to smooth the surface of the file, I forged it to the right profile, then I cut the right angle for the scraper. After that I tempered the metal (hardened it) and polished it.

The fun bit really started with making a handle for my scraper. I used green string, shellac, pigments and glitter.

The workshop has a good variety of pigments, both pure and pre-mixed, so I decided to make my own personal colours for my handle.

Surprisingly I also found three types of metallic pigments in the workshop. I immediately decided I was going to use this for my string (handle) for a bit more femininity.

Mixing pigments to gain different colours was very enjoyable; I look forward to working with pigments in the future.

The whole process of colouring/applying shellac took two days, as you have to wait for a layer to dry a bit, and then apply a new layer. Shellac gets hard and builds up well when applied it in multiple layers.

I am very pleased with my new sparkly handle; I think I can say that this scraper is my favourite tool.