When you said "worth its weight in gold", I thought maybe you were going to sing the praises of the John James Gold 'n' Glide milliner needles. I picked up my first pack today & they are AMAZING! Make hand applique
so much easier. The Gold 'n' Glide needles are awesome, though, because they are Teflon coated & slide through the fabric like a warm knife through butter. My thread does sometimes look like it's getting tangled, but I've yet to get an actual knot while stitching ... and that's saying something since I work with 36" of thread at a time (I know, I know. I should use half that amount). I definitely recommend trying these needles for anyone who does hand applique work!
I was looking at the Thread Heaven tool & wasn't sure about it. The lady at my LQS couldn't tell me anything about it, so I went with a simple beeswax & that worked fine for me, but now I want to try that Thread Heaven tool.