I need help with a hair stick I’m designing; I need to be able to
insert the stick thru a hair bun, and then insert a decorative cap on
the end. The other end will also have a decorative cap, but a
permanent one. The fastener needs to be secure, should not allow
hair to get caught in it, but permit the wearer to fasten it strictly
by feel. The “stick” portion will be a length of 10 or 12 gauge
sterling wire. Any ideas on appropriate fasteners?
Linda
Linda, would you consider inserting powerful magnets in the stick
and decorative cap?
Perhaps something that works the way the rubber ear things do. But I
don’t recall ever seeing a hair stick using one, I thought tension
alone worked, and if that wasn’t enough, a bobby pin or two. The
hardware store probably has something that would work, and be
concealed inside the piece you are talking about. It would be a great
sell point. A customer could buy the original stick, and various
things for the end.
Roxy
Linda- Get a small tap and die set and thread the end of the hair
stick and make the end into a bead that screws on. Tapping a dieing
stuff is easy. No machinery needed. Just a tap and die set.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
www.timothwgreen.com
I’d suggest using a jabot catch, or cliquet. A detente is made in
the pin in the form of a latitudinal groove circling the pin a few
millimeters from the point. The catch is in the form of a spring
which has a lip or ridge which engages the detente when the cap is
slipped on the pin. A pressoir is attached to the spring which lifts
it, disengaging it from the detente and allowing the cap to be
removed from the pin.
One can also make double springs which engage the detente from
opposite sides of the pin. Earring lock-backs work this way.
I have never made such as you describe but my immediate inclination,
were I presented with such a job, would be to use a fine tap and die
set to thread the end of the pin and to tap or thread a small
ornament to be screwed on. This would be very easy and take only a
few minutes. The threaded terminal would be secure and easy to use.
Maybe set a gemstone on top of the screw-on cap.
Miniature tap and die sets are available on line and from a variety
of catalogs.
Gerald Vaughan
Further along to the design of a cliquet. If you were making a jabot
pin you can make the catch in such a way that a pressoir is not
necessary.
The detente is filed into only one side of the pin, so that rather
than being a circuferential groove it describes a chord across the
section of the pin. The spring is generally an L-shaped piece wider
than the pin. Thus when the spring bears against the bottom of the
detente the flat end of the spring keeps the cap from turning on the
pin. But when you manually turn the cap the spring is forced up as it
moves from resting in the detente to riding against the uncut surface
of the pin. As the spring is then no longer captured by the groove,
the cap simply slips off the pin.
This works perfectly well for a pin through fabric, but I don’t know
if this would be good in a hair pin as there is a possibility that
movement of the hair might turn the cap and allow it to slip off. I
think for a hair pin I’d use a groove all around and make the cap
with a pressoir.
Elliot
Get a small tap and die set and thread the end of the hair stick and make the end into a bead that screws on. Tapping a dieing stuff is easy. No machinery needed. Just a tap and die set.
I’ve had long hair for years & years and frequently pin my hair up
with a “stick”, usually using whatever skinny pointed thing comes
easily to hand… a pencil, a pen, a chopstick… I never feel
the need for a “catch”… altho perhaps if I were inserting
something of true artistic value I would wish for one.
One comment I feel compelled to offer here, however: It is extremely
important that the pointed end which I’m attempting to thread & weave
through my hair be very smooth. Any roughness or unevenness in the
surface of the point catches & snags on hairs in very irritating &
semi-painful fashion. The thought of using something with a threaded
end is like chalk on a blackboard to my senses. I strongly suggest
seeking an alternative solution.
Slowly working through my email after being away, so my response is
perhaps a bit dated.
Virginia