Sculpey Style & Detail Tools 3/Pkg

The metal ball end of each tool is smooth without seams, peeling or flaking. They're great for working with polymer clay. I use them for etching designs, pressing pieces into place, forming curves etc. The rubber ends are a different story though. Each one has a seam with tiny frayed rubber pieces that leave lines in the clay when you're trying to smooth it. The flat one came with one side sort of curled and disfigured. If you try to tear away the frayed seam pieces it leaves a gouge. They're almost completely unusable unless you're not trying to smooth something out. Very disappointing as I was hoping for exactly that.... Blending seams in clay is exactly what I needed these for and it just leaves a mess of lines.

I purchased these for clay sculpting. I often keep a pot of very warm (not boiling) water at my work station for cleaning and other purposes. I placed the non-metallic end of one tool in the pot for a few minutes to clean clay off of them and it began to melt. I realize this may not have been an "intended use" so it is of no fault to a product meant to be used with Sculpey clay. I wanted to caution anyone who intends to use these around any heat sources. Otherwise they worked perfect for my use.

I've bought Sculpey clay and tools and always been happy but these are a letdown. The ball tool ends are fine but the soft tips are terrible. The whole tool is hollow plastic, which feels light and cheap, but doesn't effect usage.The soft tips have a mold line. As I planned to use them to smooth and blend clay, it makes them essentially useless. I tried to remove the mold line but it didn't work. The rubber just began to shred.Definitely do not recommend.

There are many different uses for these wonderful tools. The ball stylus ends come in three very different sizes - 2mm, 6mm and 12mm in diameter, and the two larger sizes are hard to find in other ball stylus sets. They're the main reason I purchased this set. The flexible-tip clay shapers on the other ends of the handles come in three different shapes - a pointed cone and two rounded cones (one narrower and one wider) that are great for smoothing seams, making seats for pointed crystal stones, etc. I often use a combination of the ball stylus tips and the flexible shaper tips to impress holes in my layered stacks for polymer clay mokume gane.

Pros: These tools are very nice for a starting sculptor like myself. I tested these on sculpy, sculpy soft and super sculpy. on all of them they do a amazing job and are a my number one used tool when it comes to smoothing.Dont get me wrong this is NOT a one product for everything sculpting I highly recommend you get a basic sculpting tool set for 7 bucks that includes a knife tool and a poke tool (apologies for the lack of proper names) to do some proper cutting and getting the basic shape.but when it comes to smoothing the rubber nips at the end are one of the nicest things I've seen. they smooth the clay out really nicely and help make very clean seems and edges.I have seen products similar to these and heard the horror story of reviews that come with them. i'm lucky to say i am not in the same case when it comes to these.The only reason I do not give these a 5 star review is that some of the rubber nib edges came with a little bit extra on the edge that I had to cut off. had i not it would leave lines and indents in my work as I smoothed. though this was a easy fix for me if not done carefully could mess up the rubber tip permanently. lucky for me i had a exact-o blade to fix it.I would buy these again in a heart beat if it was just the one end but i'm even luckier that I get the metal ball end as a bonusI

I do like the effect of these tools quite a lot, though within just a month of regular use, the taper tool had gotten rough. I use the taper tool a lot to preserve smooth but defined edges, and that's not possible with the frayed bits. It just seems like the latex used for the tip is cheap and crumbles easily. For that reason I'd recommend exploring another tool set.That said, the ball burnishers are great, particularly the small and medium sizes. I haven't found much use for the larger one. I purchased a nail detailing set, which has 6 sizes of burnishers, some smaller than in this set. Together, they give me a lot of options.

Fairly sturdy. I don't really have much to say about these as I haven't really used them yet (haven't needed them at the moment). For the most part, they seem to be of decent quality.

This would actually be 4.5 stars for me, but there are no half stars... I love these tools. They are one of my go-to sets, along with the Color Applicators - Color Shaping Tools. The reason I remove half a star is because the flexible tips in my set came a little misshapen. I can still work with them rather well, but just have to avoid the rough/pocketed areas. Overall, they are great shaping tools for polymer clay. I use all of the tips. The big ball is great for creating a larger hammered metal effect.