A scriber tool is one of those small things you don't think about until you don't have one, and this single-ended scribe earns its ten dollars easily. The steel tip is honed to a genuinely sharp point, not just pointed enough, so it marks a clean line on the first pass rather than needing two or three goes over the same spot.
As a metal scribe it handles gold, sterling silver, copper and brass without much fuss. Hold it at a low angle rather than upright, this keeps the tip in contact with the metal properly and gives you more control over where the line actually lands.
It's a genuine scriber for metal work rather than a general hobby tool, and it earns its place at three separate stages of the bench: marking out before you saw, laying out a stone setting track, or scoring a texture pattern you want to fill in later. Because it's single-ended, one hand stays free the whole time, so you can keep the workpiece steady with your other hand rather than juggling a two-ended tool.
It's also known as an engineers scriber in trades outside jewellery, a design borrowed from technical marking rather than something jewellery-specific.
