Hexagonal Sterling silver wire or spacers

[Patstone]

I have been trying to find hexagonal sterling silver wire or spacers, about 5mm or so diameter and about 4mm thick, as a customer of mine wants a necklace with things almost like nuts (like nuts and bolts type nuts) they have to go onto 5mm wire, or else I have to drill holes, she wants them plain, no pattern at all, and I cant find any anywhere. Thought that square may fit the bill, but she didnt want that. I dont need hundreds, probably about 20 would do as they are to interspersed with labrodite beads, has anyone any ideas please.

[ps_bond]

You can get fancy drawplates with that shape, but without a drawbench it'll be no fun; you could swage it if you had suitable dies, you could file a chunk of wire to a suitable hex...

Personally, I think I'd cast some nuts in Delft clay and be done with it! An M5 nut is about 8mm across from memory.

[Dennis]

Hi Pat,
That is one demanding commission. I have searched the usual websites including Rio Grande, with no luck. After what Peter has said, my only new suggestion would be to use joint tubing (that is, thick walled) and cut suitable slices with a chenier cutting guide and a thickish sawblade.

You can then file each one to a hex, maybe using a steel nut and a waterproof pen to draw the guide lines. This is the sort of low tech answer that would suit me best. By the way, I think you meant to thread them onto 0.5mm wire.

Browse Cooksons for: Joint tube RSA 064, Chenier cutter 999 597, and I would guess the thickest sawblade to fit the slot, probably 1/0, 972 050. The reason is that if the blade fits closely the surfaces will be more perfect.

Note that using solid silver nuts will make your piece quite heavy, so you might need to warn your lady. Regards, Dennis.

[Patstone]

Hi Peter I haven't the experience that you have, I wouldn't know where to start with delft clay. I do this jewellery thing as a hobby and its in my spare guest bedroom, so melting silver in there isn't really an option, its bad enough soldering and dropping something like I did the other day and making a small black mark on a plain Dijon mustard carpet which is all through the whole house, whoops, cut all the black bits off and hope it doesn't notice. I am very interested in how you guys learnt, and do you do it as a hobby or a job. It is surprising what you can learn by reading books, but I don't think that anything can beat having someone say "no you do it this way". Here's hoping that some jewellery teacher will decide to come to Exeter to live, do you fancy coming down here, I know two people that would be first on your class list.

[Patstone]

Hi Dennis, I am all for the simple life too, Peters suggestion is good if you have the facilities, but my spare bedroom isnt really the right place for doing that sort of thing, especially as its got nice carpet down which is fairly new. I wondered if I could make it in PMC, it would probably be easier, nice job polishing it, but it may be the easier answer, and less risky of catching the house alight in the process. Best wishes
Pat

[ps_bond]

Argh... Not thinking clearly. Your PMC suggestion is ideal for that, by the sounds of it. An extruder with a hex cutout, cut into slices, then drill the dry clay? I don't use the stuff, so I tend to forget about it as a possible solution.

[Patstone]

No I dont use it often either, nasty sticky stuff, but it has its uses. You can make holes in it wet too by the way, as long as it has chance to dry out overnight before firing.

[Melanie De Castro Pugh]

Hi Pat, I'd use PMC for this, make a mould from the appropriate nut using siligum or similar (I can do that for you if you like?) and then it's easy to create identical silver ones. You wouldn't get the thread on the inside, but you can probably cut one using a tap and die set, according to my husband who knows about such things!


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