Dictionary: H

A chasing hammer is made with a very smooth, flat face used for hardening and flattening wire.  The smooth flat face minimizes marks on the wire while hammering. 

View chasing hammers here.

A hank is defined as 12 strands of beads with each strand being about 20 inches long.  Seed beads are frequently sold by the hank.

Hardening is the process of making a wire jewelry component more stiff and permanent.  This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including hammering and work hardening.  View our wire hardeners here.

Wire hardness is a property of the wire that identifies how easy or hard it is to bend the wire.  Soft wire is very easy to bend, while hard wire is stiff, springy and harder to bend.

High quality wire (such as gold-filled and silver) can be made in a variety of hardnesses.  Hard wire is the least easy to bend, and is not used for many jewelry making projects because of this.  More commonly used hardnesses for jewelry-making include soft and half-hard wire.

High quality wire can be made in a variety of hardness from dead soft to full hardened.  In the middle of this range is a wire hardness called half hard.  This wire is stiffer than dead soft, but not as stiff and springy as fully hardened wire.  In general, only gold, gold-filled, sterling silver and fine silver wire can be purchased with a hardness of half-hard. 

A head pin is a metal pin with a flat head on one end and straight wire on the other end.  Head pins are used to make bead dangles and to attach beads to wire loops. 

View our selection of head pins here.

A hemostat is a medical tool that has an application for jewelry-making.  It is a clamp that is easy to close and lock into place with one hand.  Hemostats are frequently used to hold the end of thread or bead stringing wire while you are adding beads to a necklace or bracelet. 

View our selection of hemostats here.