1800x1800 pixels. At my site (at signature link).

Have fun.

Laurie

Thank you ! :)

I don't have that dress, but I did snap up the earrings!  A girl can never have enough jewelery! hehe

By the way, I love your chainmaille gallery.  Do you sell any of what you make?

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Quote - Thank you ! :)

 

You're welcome :o)

Quote - I don't have that dress, but I did snap up the earrings!  A girl can never have enough jewelery! hehe

 

That's true! LOL

Quote - By the way, I love your chainmaille gallery.  Do you sell any of what you make?

Thanks. Not yet I haven't but I've sold other jewelry pieces :o).

Laurie

Nice jewelry work!

On the stainless wire difficulties:

Choosing the stainless wire makes a big difference, lower percentages of chromium and vanadium result in a softer steel so would be easier to work....that and power tools. I make jump rings using stainless wire from Lowe's frequently as it is fairly ductile for a stainless.

Anneal, wind onto a piece of wooden dowel and use a cut-off wheel in a flexible shaft tool or Dremel to cut the wire.

To anneal the wire I normally just bind the coil tightly and toss it in the charcoal grill after the food is off then retrieve the coil after the remaining coals have burnt out and everything has cooled off. I lose some wire to oxidation but I don't flux because it would wreck the grill.

Putting all those little rings together to make jewelry like you have....not happening here....I suffer from repetitious motion boredom.:biggrin:

Quote - Nice jewelry work!

On the stainless wire difficulties:

Choosing the stainless wire makes a big difference, lower percentages of chromium and vanadium result in a softer steel so would be easier to work....that and power tools. I make jump rings using stainless wire from Lowe's frequently as it is fairly ductile for a stainless.

Anneal, wind onto a piece of wooden dowel and use a cut-off wheel in a flexible shaft tool or Dremel to cut the wire.

To anneal the wire I normally just bind the coil tightly and toss it in the charcoal grill after the food is off then retrieve the coil after the remaining coals have burnt out and everything has cooled off. I lose some wire to oxidation but I don't flux because it would wreck the grill.

Putting all those little rings together to make jewelry like you have....not happening here....I suffer from repetitious motion boredom.:biggrin:

You know, I NEVER thought of putting the coil of wire in the GRILL??? I wonder if it will work on a gas grill? No matter, I'll dig a pit in the yard just to burn logs in...LOLOLOL. Anyway, that's a stellar idea and THANK YOU. You just KNOW I'm going to have to try it again now....LOL. I suppose any softness that may happen will get worked out by just regular work hardening and when I put it in to tumble in the shot for 12 hours or so. But it's definitely the springiness that gets me - I can wind it and all, but when I twist the rings closed they have a tendency to not stay closed...LOL.

The stainless steel I buy is specifically for chainmaille. I get nearly all my wire from a place in Canada even tho I'm in the U.S. (and even thought the shipping is more, I still can get it cheaper than anywhere else).

"Anneal, wind onto a piece of wooden dowel and use a cut-off wheel in a flexible shaft tool or Dremel to cut the wire."

I have a flex shaft to cut the coils with and a specialized jig that holds them so that the saw is straight and cuts in one pass. However, the delicate blades will not stand up to stainless steel, although it will cut nearly everything else. I also have a professional winding machine with various sizes of mandrels as well as a large set of transfer punches to serve as mandrels for the in between sizes. I've never had any luck winding on wood - too soft. I've used a phillips screwdriver shaft a time or two in my day....LOL.

As for the chainmaille being tedious, I've done tedious things for fun all my life...LOL (I have no idea what that says about me). But since I rarely think about the work involved and only the finished piece, it goes by rather quickly. And, depending on the weave, I can do a bracelet in less than three hours most of the time.

Laurie

Quote -
You know, I NEVER thought of putting the coil of wire in the GRILL??? I wonder if it will work on a gas grill? No matter, I'll dig a pit in the yard just to burn logs in...LOLOLOL. Anyway, that's a stellar idea and THANK YOU. You just KNOW I'm going to have to try it again now....LOL. I suppose any softness that may happen will get worked out by just regular work hardening and when I put it in to tumble in the shot for 12 hours or so. But it's definitely the springiness that gets me - I can wind it and all, but when I twist the rings closed they have a tendency to not stay closed...LOL.

I just use the charcoal grill cause I figure why waste the heat. Be careful whichever method you choose because you don't want to overheat the steel just soften it....not much good if your wire melts into a blob or burns. (trust me, thin steel wire burns easily if you apply heat and too much oxygen....don't ask:blushing:)

If you want to prevent oxidation without fluxing you can wrap the coil in stainless steel foil. I don't bother with it because the wire from Lowe's is pretty cheap so losing a bit is no big deal.

Annealing will take the spring out of the wire and should let you wind on hardwood, works for me anyway. The steel won't work harden like copper or brass. You'll have to heat the finished piece, quench it, then temper it to spring hardness. You will need to get the metallurgy report on the steel you use to determine the proper temperatures and whether to use an oil quench or a water quench. There are charts for all that but if you have problems finding the temperature info send me the specs and I'll track it down for you.

Your work flow will be anneal, cut the rings, polish, construct, polish, heat to temp, quench, polish, temper to proper hardness, final polish. You'll probably have to get out the rouge and the cotton string to get the tiny spots for the final polish but you're more than likely used to that step.

If your flexible shaft will use Dremel mandrels try the Dremel fiber reinforced cut-off wheels and a light touch making multiple passes to cut the wire.

To get your rings to stay closed put the ring on the next size down mandrel and close the ends slightly past each other, then when you pull the ends apart and twist them together any spring in the metal will work for you snapping the ends against each other. Using the next smaller mandrel just stops the rings from crushing when you make the ends bypass each other and will compensate for using the thicker wheel to cut the wire.