12 pounds of steel in my carry on

Over the holidays I took a trip to the Otto Frei retail store in Oakland. I needed to get some supplies and my family was kind enough to indulge my whim and accompany me on a journey into the wild world of jewelry supply stores. I normally order everything online, so you can imagine my excitement at being able to actually see and touch the tools before buying them.

The store is near Jack London Square in a still very industrial part of town. It is housed in an old brick warehouse on 2nd street just off of the freeway. We walked in to the store and were asked to check in before wandering through the cramped, dusty aisles. The store, which looked as if we had stepped back into 1973, was a conglomeration of machinery and hand tools mixed in with cleaning and polishing liquids and miscellaneous packaging containers. There was no rhyme or reason to the arrangement of the products, it was more of a do it yourself scavenger hunt for whatever random item you needed. And I needed dapping tools. I proceeded to wander the aisles, parents and brother in tow, stopping every now & then to admire a flex-shaft or drill press along the way. For the sake of brevity, I will not describe the amount of time it took me to go through everything and decide on what my purchases of the day would be, but let me just say that I found the dapping tools as well as some sheet silver, a bench block, some shears and some packaging material. Thank you to my parents who aided in lessening the pain from the total cost of my toys. I could have spent all day (and a whole paycheck) there but was saved by the fact that I had to catch a flight back home later that evening.

Jewelry making is an expensive hobby. And the tools are heavy. My dappers alone weighed over 12 pounds and it only occurred to me upon packing my suitcase later in the day that these new purchases might put me over the 50 pound weight limit. Well, the 4 bottles of wine may have contributed as well...

I got to the airport and upon checking in, it was confirmed. My suitcase weighed a whopping 58.9 pounds. It was $50 or moving some stuff my already overstuffed carry on. I had no choice but to remove the 12 pounds of steel and hope that security wouldn't stop me as I trudged through the checkpoint. At this point, the bag weighed as much as I do and it was all I could do to drag it through security to the gate. Surprisingly (or maybe not?) I was allowed to carry the tools on after a quick stint in the explosives detector.

The attached pictures show the first piece I've made with my new toys...