Jewelers

<ul><li>Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.</li><li>Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.</li><li>Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.</li><li>Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.</li><li>Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.</li><li>Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.</li><li>Compute costs of labor and materials in order to determine production costs of products and articles.</li><li>Mark and drill holes in jewelry mountings in order to center stones according to design specifications.</li><li>Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.</li><li>Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds.</li><li>Pour molten metal alloys or other materials into molds in order to cast models of jewelry.</li><li>Cut, shape, and smooth gemstones, pearls, and metal pieces, using abrasives, grinding stones, and power and hand tools.</li><li>Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies.</li><li>Determine appraised values of diamonds and other gemstones based on price guides, market fluctuations, and stone grades and rarity.</li><li>Alter existing jewelry mountings in order to reposition jewels or to adjust mountings.</li><li>Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut.</li><li>Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.</li><li>Write or modify design specifications such as the metal contents and weights of items.</li><li>Create new jewelry designs and modify existing designs, using computers as necessary.</li><li>Examine gemstone surfaces and internal structures to evaluate genuineness, quality, and value, using polariscopes, refractometers, and other optical instruments.</li><li>Buy and sell jewelry, or serve as agents between buyers and sellers.</li><li>Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces.</li><li>Lay out designs on metal stock, and cut along markings to fabricate pieces used to cast metal molds.</li><li>Fabricate, modify, or repair jigs, fixtures, and hand tools such as scrapers, cutters, gougers, and shapers.</li><li>Mark, engrave, or emboss designs on metal pieces such as castings, wire, or jewelry, following specifications.</li><li>Cut designs in molds or other materials to be used as models in the fabrication of metal and jewelry products.</li><li>Design and fabricate molds, models, and machine accessories, and modify hand tools used to cast metal and jewelry pieces.</li><li>Research and analyze reference materials, and consult with interested parties in order to develop new products or modify existing designs.</li></ul>