PB Cohen Creations

I love drilling tiny holes into metal, even back when I used a hand drill most of the time. I used to store different sizes of drill bits in plastic containers — many of the small sizes usually used by jewelers fit into old 35mm film canisters, for example. But a little while ago, I got a big set. Because the bits are sitting out in the open, I can easily decide visually which one I want to use. I love it! Click on this photo for a big version; if you do you'll see that I'm missing numbers 71 and 72. That's because these are very small, and thus easy to break. Here's one of them:

Be sure to click on this one for a big version. You'll see two brightly-colored curls of silver sticking up, with the grey tip of the drill broken off in the middle, stuck in the hole.

You can dissolve stuck drill bits in a solution of alum — the friendly folks at the Etsy Metal blog have a nice description of this. Since I was cutting little faces, I just cut this one out with my saw blade. More on that later.