Heat gun dopping hack

[RoughCreations]

I've been using a heat gun held in a rubber-jawed vice to dop my stones of late. I hold the brass dop in one hand, and the stone in the other using some tweezers if they start getting too hot to handle. I roll the side edge of the dop with softened wax on a flat block of steel to get a shiny smooth surface first before introducing the heated stone to be dopped.
This method prevents me singeing the wax, and it seems to heat the shellac uniformly all the way through, enabling me plenty of time to center the stone if needed, and giving me much better control over the whole process compared to a naked flame. I have the concentrating steel nozzle on the end of the gun, and I use the medium heat setting of the gun's adjustable heat output (low, medium and high). I don't know if other people already use this method, but it's new to me at least.
p.s. It also has the additional benefit of keeping my cutting room warm during winter!
RC

[Jimnyjerry]

to keep your fingers from getting warm you might try drilling the end of a wooden dowel to fit your brass dob in Jerry