I have collected tins for years, but they get rusty and are no longer food-worthy, so they make great recycled jewelry. To start, you need to flatten the tin. That involves cutting off the top and bottom of the tin. The best tool for this job is shears like these.
You can buy these at most hardware stores. They come right, left or straight. I use the right since right handed. These shears are best used to dismantle the tin which means cutting off bottom, the top rim and the seam. Be sure to wear gloves as tins are sharp. After taking apart I flatten the tin with a rubber or rawhide mallet.
The next helpful shear are called scissor shears. They are useful for cutting the flattened tin into smaller pieces or manageable pieces. You can get straight or curved.
These are available on line from jewelry supply stores. I like Contenti.
If you want to cut simple designs, my go to tool is Joyce Chen boning shears. You can cut most designs as long as there is not too much detail. I find myself using these not only when cutting tins, but also they work great on 26 gauge copper.
These three tools will get you started on making jewelry from tins. After only using these for a number of years, I spent money to buy disc cutters to speed up the process some. These talisman were made with disc cutters.
I will do another post to tell you who I think makes the best disc cutters on Etsy. For a round disc cutter I recommend spending the money for a Swanstrom cutter . After buying numerous cheaper cutter which ended up being a waste of money, I purchased one from Swanstrom and it never fails me.
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