Bead Reaming Pearls - Making a larger Hole!


QUESTION: Has anyone had any troubles stringing pearls? I can always get one wire through but can never get two. the hole is too small. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

ANSWER: I got some tools at the show that are "suppose" to help make holes bigger, I haven't tried them yet, I should today though! Will let you know how that goes!!

Ok I am back after trying out my new tools to make holes in pearls larger! While my work was successful it is going to be time consuming for those who need to do an entire necklace worth!

The pearls I tested I wanted to double strand on a .019 size of wire. At the moment the pearl could be single stranded on the .019 and double stranded on my .014 wire. So the goal is to make to double stand on the 0.19.

I started with the smallest tool that came in my kit, all of the tools are tappered, start with the smallest and see how far that fits and then work your way to the next. Once I had a tool that only part way fit through my pearl I used that one to work on making the hole larger.

I used a back and forth motion on the pearl letting the tool carefully grind away at the hole. Pearls when originally drilled are drilled from both ends, do the same when making the hole larger. Work both sides.

It took me almost 8 minutes to get the hole large enough to strand twice! So if you have a lot of time this method works!

Here are some pictures: