Cable wire

[Kathryn Harrison]

Having spent some fruitless time looking for brass or steel cable wire to try stuff out I wondered if it is possible to make your own?

I sort of figured you could buy really fine wire clamp the ends together and carefully twist but I bet it is way harder than that sounds. Has anyone done this? If so how do you determine the final thickness.

[Kathryn Harrison]

Ah I think I've found some http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1506248437...84.m1438.l2649

[Dennis]

The curse is that the dimensions are given in inches, but 0.025" is about o.6mm, not exactly suitable for necklace cable.

If you can find some brass wire, you can twist your own cable from several strands, by clamping one end in a vice and winding the other around a cup hook. The screw end of the hook is then held in the jaws of a carpenters hand drill, or a very slow electric drill.

Twist the wire under tension and pull a little more when the cable is finished. The diameter is roughly the sum of the strands. Dennis.

[Kathryn Harrison]

Hmm a carpenters hand drill might make a good christmas pressie But I might make a trip to the scrap yard and see with wire I can get on the cheap.

I thought maybe I'd try some multi-strand things with it but I might just get silver and just not cap the ends just to see how it hangs before making the pendant parts in sliver. Sometimes though I start making something in brass or copper to try it out and just end up liking it in that metal!

Thanks again for your help!

[Dennis]

How it hangs depends a bit on the weight of the pendant Kathryn, but it ends up oval rather than V- shaped, so that it complements tops with round necklines better.

Here is my moonstone pendant on silver cable and the bail is a piece of curved tubing. You can also use multi-strands. At the other end is a hook fastener and an adjustment chain to vary the length. The cable ends can be bought, but I make them myself from tubing and glue them on with two-part five minute epoxy, such as Devcon. Regards, Dennis.

[Kathryn Harrison]

I did end up making one with .8mm silver cable wire for my mum and in under a month she managed to get the hook caught in a scarf and kink the wire (made my own ends in tube and a soldered oval chain and all, at least I can reuse the chain I made). I'm going to make her another one do you know if thicker cable, say 1mm, is less prone to kinking like that? Also my catch was at fault it would be better use one less likely to catch on things but I just made a simple s type one.

[Dennis]

That's rather sad Kathryn, But it has happened to me too. I have found that several strands of thinner cable, say three of 0.60mm used together seem to kink less easily than one thick one.

There is also a plastic covered steel wire, which measures 0.58mm and is virtually kink proof. Again it looks best if you use several strands. It comes in a medium grey and lots of interesting strong colours. I have got it from Rashbel and Bellore, by asking for tiger tail, but cant find it online. Maybe you could phone them. It is so cheap you could get a few colours as samples.

Regards, Dennis.

[Kathryn Harrison]

It is only sad because she really liked it, for me it is a chance to see if I can reproduce it! What I might do is make a silver one for special occasions and do her a work horse one for every day use since she was using it every day.

Thanks for all your help on this.

[mizgeorge]

All the tigertails and beading wires are nylon coated, and actually tend not to look very nice. The cheaper 7 strand versions kink, and the higher strand count versions look better, but can have too much drape. They're not really an option to cable.

If you want a steel version, try these crimp n go versions - http://www.beadservice.net/shop/arti...aid%3DNC502%26 - they do coloured ones as well, and they're a great cheap alternative for quickly turning pendants into ready-to-wear.

[Kathryn Harrison]

Any idea if you can get nylon coated silver for better kink resistance? I just like the way cable hangs so much.

Kat