Wire

[Statik367]

Hello all,

I am not new to the site, but I am new to the forums. I hope this is not a commonly repeated question but, I had a question for everyone. I do quite a bit of chainmailing, and I am looking to turn it into a business. I offer custom made pieces, sometimes allowing the client to choose the colors and such. Right now I buy all my rings, the issue is when I get a request for a color I don't have, in a size I don't always use, then I have to order them and I have leftover rings.

I want to start making my own rings, cause I would rather have a collection of wire that I can make to fit. I found mandala crafts has some nice anodized wire, but I can't seem to find bright aluminum wire. Is it just aluminum wire that's been anodized silver?

Also, does anyone have any other shops they like to use to get their wire? Any suggestions and help would be very much appreciated.

 

[chainmaillers.com]

I am not new to the site, but I am new to the forums.

Welcome to the forums

I hope this is not a commonly repeated question

As we don't have that many forum posts, there are very few commonly repeated questions at this time

I want to start making my own rings, cause I would rather have a collection of wire that I can make to fit. I found mandala crafts has some nice anodized wire, but I can't seem to find bright aluminum wire. Is it just aluminum wire that's been anodized silver?

There are a few issues with this.

Most craft store (not sure if Mandala Crafts is a craft store) wire is not suitable for chainmaille as, I believe in most cases, it is dead soft wire (more for wire wrapping than making rings).

Bright Aluminum (BA) is more based on the alloy that is used, there is no anodized layer in rings commonly sold as "bright aluminum". One of the problems with BA is that as it oxidizes, there is sometimes a black ruboff associated with it (may get on skin and clothing but generally easily washed off). To combat this problem with ruboff, many vendors started anodizing a silver color.

As for anodizing Aluminum (or Aluminium as it is called in some places) it is a chemical process that I believe most vendors have done offsite. In most cases, they either send presized coils (these rings have "silver" ends) or already cut rings to be anodized (these rings have ends the same color as the rest of the ring). In other words, I'm pretty sure that no one is sitting on spools of already anodized wire and then sizing and cutting to order.

Hope that helps

 

[Statik367]

Thank you for this information, in my search, what aluminum alloy should I be looking for?

 

[tommfranklin]

This is a 12-year-old post from Reddit on the topic of anodizing aluminum. I'd imagine some of the processes have improved, but it's a good starting point.

 

[chainmaillers.com]

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Thank you for this information, in my search, what aluminum alloy should I be looking for?

Offhand, no idea, but a good starting point would be to look at vendor sites and see if they mention which alloy they use. I know that chainmailjoe does mention, not sure about any of the others.

This is a 12-year-old post from Reddit on the topic of anodizing aluminum. I'd imagine some of the processes have improved, but it's a good starting point.

Did you by any chance forget to put in the link to the topic?

 

[tommfranklin]

I'll credit that to not enough caffeine this morning.

Here are some newer links while I search for that older one from reddit:

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How to Anodize Aluminum (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Anodizing uses acid to create a corrosion- and wear-resistant layer on top of a metal. The process of anodizing also changes the crystal structure near the surface of substances, like aluminum alloy, which allows you to dye the metal a...

www.wikihow.com

How to Anodize Aluminum | The Federal Group USA

Anodizing aluminum parts can be an efficient way of adding enhanced mechanical properties to parts or improve their aesthetics. Read on to learn more.

www.tfgusa.com

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[tommfranklin]

One other consideration: cutting the links from lengths of wire can be very time consuming. Back in the day, (when the economy was much better and silver was closer to $5/oz) I was making a lot of Byzantine chains for sale. I worked with 22g-18g wire. Finding the right sized mandrels to wrap the wire around was one issue; cutting each link out with a jeweler's saw was another.
For personal use, it might be okay to just cut the links with snips, but you're going to have sharp edges where the rings connect. IMHO, items for sale, you need to join the ends as smoothly joined as possible. (Think about how you'd expect a cu$tom piece to be, given the money you're spending on it.)
You're also going to have to make an up-front investment in equipment and chemicals, all of which you'll need to recover by including in your custom-colored pieces.

 

[moaatt]

Thank you for this information, in my search, what aluminum alloy should I be looking for?

If you haven't already found a suggestion I know that The Ring Lord uses 5356 - H18 for their Bright Aluminum and I have always found it works well for me.

One additional note, I have heard it said that coiling and cutting pre-anodized aluminum can cause the anodized layer to crack and flake off leaving bad looking rings.