Message Boards

What bit should I use to drill a 1/8 - 1/4" hole in a shell without shattering it? Some look very delicate. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

I live in south florida, and have a lot of sea shells. I would like to make something with some of the pretty ones. I haven't tried to drill holes in them yet. I was thinking that maybe the 1/4 inch drill bit would be the one to try. Maybe on a shell that is not real delicate. Experiment on few first. Hope that helps you.

I haven't done it yet, but I googled: how to drill seashells
There's lots of information there.

craftyrad,
I googled how to drill sea shells, and got a lot of information.
Thank's for the site.

I actually tried drilling some for jewelry and gave up. Too many of them ended up breaking. The ones that didn't were so pretty but even then they were so fragile that I hated to use them on the bracelet like I wanted to. Figured with the least little clink they would probably break too.

Years ago I used my Dremel and the smallest drill
bit to make a wind chime from some of my shells.
It hung on my breezy, covered porch for years
and only one shell broke.
Start small, I used fishing line to attach it
to a piece of driftwood.

Thanks for your responses! I couldn't remember where I posted the question, so I'm just now finding them.