How do you drill a hole in a sea shell to keep it from cracking to wear as a necklace?

Question

How do you drill a hole in a sea shell to keep it from cracking to wear as a necklace?

Answer 1

use a drimal tool with a very small bit

Answer 2

With a Handheld Grinder

A safe way to drill a hole in the shell without breaking it is with the kind of small handheld grinder that you can buy in hobby shops and hardware stores. Using a small stone grinding tip, grind through the shell and gently enlarge the hole to 3/8 inch (9 mm).  

Answer 3

I bought a Bead Reamer from Fire Mountain Gems, and I have used it to open holes wider in pearls. The instructions say to keep the reamer wet to avoid cracking the pearls.

While you cannot necessarily start a brand new hole with this tool, the key point is to keep the object wet, no matter what tool you use.

Their website offers tips and you can email them questions, I believe.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

get a very small drill bit to drill at first and then once you have a small hole get a bigger size not to big and drill it out again and just repet these steps until you get a big enought hole

Answer 5

Get a small drillbit with a POINTED end. Use the fastest drill you can find and just get bigger and bigger bits!