square silver bracelet

Quite a while back, I came across an article about fabricating a silver
bracelet from square silver wire, somewhere between 6 and 2 gauge. If I
remember correctly, the center third was twisted in one direction and the
outside thirds were twisted in the opposite. A few weeks ago, one gent
showed me his bracelet that had two twisted silver wires that were soldered
at the ends and was absolutely stunning. I'm still kicking myself for not
taking a photo of it for future reference. On my latest order from Rio
Grande, I ordered a few oz of 6 gauge square silver wire and have to admit
that having never worked with anything larger than 12 gauge wire, I was
taken a bit aback by the size of it and realized that it may be prudent to
sit back and take my time on this before I ruin some wire.
First of all, does anyone have any links to any pictures of bracelets like
these and most importantly, does anyone have any kindly words of wisdom on
how to proceed and what definately NOT to do.

Thank you, Bob

Bob Common wrote:
Quite a while back, I came across an article about fabricating a silver
bracelet from square silver wire, somewhere between 6 and 2 gauge. If I
remember correctly, the center third was twisted in one direction and the
outside thirds were twisted in the opposite. A few weeks ago, one gent
showed me his bracelet that had two twisted silver wires that were soldered
at the ends and was absolutely stunning. I'm still kicking myself for not
taking a photo of it for future reference. On my latest order from Rio
Grande, I ordered a few oz of 6 gauge square silver wire and have to admit
that having never worked with anything larger than 12 gauge wire, I was
taken a bit aback by the size of it and realized that it may be prudent to
sit back and take my time on this before I ruin some wire.
First of all, does anyone have any links to any pictures of bracelets like
these and most importantly, does anyone have any kindly words of wisdom on
how to proceed and what definately NOT to do.

Thank you, Bob



Hi Bob,
Where are you? it might help if your in the UK as ive now free uk
calls from my phone provider. Id be happy to discuss it with you.
So to proceed.
Can you please say what thickness in mm or thous of in your square
wire is? is it fully annealed? and presumeably its what we call here
sterling grade. We have here the Birmingham wire gauge , its not used
much, most dimensions are now quoted in mm's or thous/ in
Because ive made lots of bracelets using all sorts of wire, square being
one of the easiest.
IF your not sure what to do, do you have a rolling mill? which makes
square wire?
If you have, then find some copper transformer wire, roll it square
to the same thickness as your silver wire then anneal ,and pickle. bright.
Neutralise and dry.
Clamp one end in your smiths leg vice, all good siversmiths should
have one of these, its your third hand.( its not a jewellers tool)
clamp some overcenter toggle mole grips? on the other end. twist
whilst you pull at the same time.
Now how much you twist is up to how you see the balance of thickness
to no of twists per inch. Any wire over 1/8in will make your arms ache.
Especially when you get down to 4 or more twists to the in.
youll need to experiment to decide.
when your happy with what you have done youll need to anneal etc all
over again.
how you join the no of twisted strands together is a design issue and
I wont go into that right now.
Have a go and report back how you get on. IF you can take some
pictures so we can see what youve done,then well be able to help much
better.
The ultimate twisted silver bracelets are the ones made from Maria
Teresa Austrian silver coins in Namibia.
Ive copied some and there quite a challenge,
the wire in the center strand is from 4 strands woven in a special way
from 100/1000in wire.
Hard on the hands.
When you can make these youve really arrived. Something to aim at.
Ted Frater Dorset UK;.

Ted Frater wrote:
Bob Common wrote:
Quite a while back, I came across an article about fabricating a silver
bracelet from square silver wire, somewhere between 6 and 2 gauge. If I
remember correctly, the center third was twisted in one direction and the
outside thirds were twisted in the opposite. A few weeks ago, one gent
showed me his bracelet that had two twisted silver wires that were soldered
at the ends and was absolutely stunning. I'm still kicking myself for not
taking a photo of it for future reference. On my latest order from Rio
Grande, I ordered a few oz of 6 gauge square silver wire and have to admit
that having never worked with anything larger than 12 gauge wire, I was
taken a bit aback by the size of it and realized that it may be prudent to
sit back and take my time on this before I ruin some wire.
First of all, does anyone have any links to any pictures of bracelets like
these and most importantly, does anyone have any kindly words of wisdom on
how to proceed and what definately NOT to do.

Thank you, Bob



Hi Bob,
Where are you? it might help if your in the UK as ive now free uk
calls from my phone provider. Id be happy to discuss it with you.
So to proceed.
Can you please say what thickness in mm or thous of in your square
wire is? is it fully annealed? and presumeably its what we call here
sterling grade. We have here the Birmingham wire gauge , its not used
much, most dimensions are now quoted in mm's or thous/ in
Because ive made lots of bracelets using all sorts of wire, square being
one of the easiest.
IF your not sure what to do, do you have a rolling mill? which makes
square wire?
If you have, then find some copper transformer wire, roll it square
to the same thickness as your silver wire then anneal ,and pickle. bright.
Neutralise and dry.
Clamp one end in your smiths leg vice, all good siversmiths should
have one of these, its your third hand.( its not a jewellers tool)
clamp some overcenter toggle mole grips? on the other end. twist
whilst you pull at the same time.
Now how much you twist is up to how you see the balance of thickness
to no of twists per inch. Any wire over 1/8in will make your arms ache.
Especially when you get down to 4 or more twists to the in.
youll need to experiment to decide.
when your happy with what you have done youll need to anneal etc all
over again.
how you join the no of twisted strands together is a design issue and
I wont go into that right now.
Have a go and report back how you get on. IF you can take some
pictures so we can see what youve done,then well be able to help much
better.
The ultimate twisted silver bracelets are the ones made from Maria
Teresa Austrian silver coins in Namibia.
Ive copied some and there quite a challenge,
the wire in the center strand is from 4 strands woven in a special way
from 100/1000in wire.
Hard on the hands.
When you can make these youve really arrived. Something to aim at.
Ted Frater Dorset UK;.
Ted

Do you have a link to some pictures of the bracelets you refer to?

--
Dougie