Quite new to jewellery making and Cookson Gold's silver cable wire

Hello. I am a new member and as you can probably tell from my question am also quite new to jewellery making. I just discovered the wonderful Cookson Gold 0.8mm sterling silver cable wire together with the end caps to fit. I have made two necklaces with this and have a problem cutting this wire to size. I have a more expensive pair of cutters but maybe they are not right for this wire as the tiny filaments separate and then don't fit into the end caps. Do l need a special cutter or do l need to do something with the rough ends first. I would love to go on using this wire so would really appreciate any advice you can give. With thanks.

Have you tried wrapping the area to cut with e.g. masking tape and sawing? You'll get adhesive on the saw blade, but other than that it should hold the strands together.

I too have encountered this problem and find that holding the cable near the end with one hand and twisting back into shape with thumb and forefinger of the other, realigns the individual wires, furthermore rotating the end cap relative to the twist as you insert the wire also helps.

Hi Linda,

You have had the answers above, but in my book It is also a matter of being prepared, so as to minimise the tendency to unravel in the first place.
Mark where the cable is to be cut, hold it very close to the mark, cut it and have the end cap close by so that you can slip it on with a twisting action as described by Kwant. Personally I just use a sharp side cutter, such as the Cookson 999 705 or 6.

How are you attaching your cable to the end caps? I find bought ones a bit short and so make my own from tubing and jump rings. Then I use two part epoxy such as Devcon to glue in the cable. This avoids heating it by soldering, which is bad news. Should it later get kinked in use, which is unfortunately quite common with silver cable, it can easily be removed by heating it under tension.

All this was discussed here recently and you might find more information by using the search box, top right. Regards, Dennis.

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Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Linda,

You have had the answers above, but in my book It is also a matter of being prepared, so as to minimise the tendency to unravel in the first place.
Mark where the cable is to be cut, hold it very close to the mark, cut it and have the end cap close by so that you can slip it on with a twisting action as described by Kwant. Personally I just use a sharp side cutter, such as the Cookson 999 705 or 6.

How are you attaching your cable to the end caps? I find bought ones a bit short and so make my own from tubing and jump rings. Then I use two part epoxy such as Devcon to glue in the cable. This avoids heating it by soldering, which is bad news. Should it later get kinked in use, which is unfortunately quite common with silver cable, it can easily be removed by heating it under tension.

All this was discussed here recently and you might find more information by using the search box, top right. Regards, Dennis.

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Thank you so much for replying so quickly. I was relieved to discover that it wasn't just me. Phew. I had thought of using glue to bind the ends together but thought i'd wait and see what the experts suggestions were. Thank you for the hint of the cutter you use. I will get one from Cookson. If you use it, it should be good. I will let you know how l get on as l am determined to beat this and make some lovely jewellery with this cable.

Hi Peter. Thank you so much for your quick reply. The other thing l've only just thought of is to put a little glue on the end of the wire before cutting it - cutting a little above the glue maybe even after the glue has dried. May also be worth a try? This is the first time i've used a forum and am already thinking how great it is. I will be keeping my eye on it - you never know l might even be able to help someone out with a question. Linda

Hi Kwant. Many thanks for your quick reply. I have tried doing what you suggested and a couple of times it worked but not on the others. I have just thought of another method which maybe will work. Perhaps putting a little glue on the end of the wire before cutting and then cutting a teeny bit above the glue, maybe after the glue has dried. I will give it a try and let you know how it goes. By the way, l was relieved to discover that l was not the only one with this problem. I will also buy the cutters from Cookson that Dennis suggested. Regards Linda