Hi All
First post here.
Rookie with silversmithing. I am wanting to make a silver turquoise cuff bracelet using 3 pieces of half round silver wire as the basis of the cuff and then soldering the base and other pieces to it.
My question is what gauge of silver half round wire to use to use as the foundation for the cuff?
Thanks
Mike
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Hi,
i am thinking there are two questions here…
structural integrity:
- minimum overall metal thickness for the cuff
i will say…i made a narrow cuff bracelet ages ago…i used 20gg (0.80mm) sheet, with 16gg (1.2mm) half round wire soldered on top, at the edges…with 5 bezel strip set turq freeform ovals…
i was in a group setting…my friends kept saying 20gg is too thin…i said “but the bracelet i am using as a muse is 20gg so it should be ok”…i finished the bracelet, but they were right…in the sense that the 20gg strip sheet kept warping…nightmare!…
it doesnt sound like you will he using a backplate for your wire, so this is kinda irrelevant…but not…
its like my brother saying “get a Mac computer, and me saying why, and him saying it’s just better, and me saying but i am a PC person”…i didnt understand what he meant by “its just better” the same way i didnt understand when my friends were saying “its too thin”…
“its just better” meant that MACs dont collect what i call “computer lint” that accumulates and makes the PC lock up, slow down, etc…
“its too thin” meant it was gonna warp when i tried to apply the heat neccessary to solder the thicker wire on top…
personally, i am going to venture to suggest a “minimum” wire thickness of…2mm…?…which would mean 4mm wide…?…on a 50% dome height…half round wire come in a few different dome ratios…low dome, high dome…etc three 4mm wide wires, side by side would result in 12mm wide bracelet…you may want wider…you could use wider wire…or incorporate space in betweem…
design:
- desired total width of the cuff, from a design standpoint
- desire to use 3 half round wires
- desired width of each half round wire
draw out the bracelet design width as a flat strip, on a piece of paper…and determine how wide you want it to be…is it narrow? wide? tapered?
then draw the wire placement onto the strip…is the wire design solid? open spacing between the wires? are the rurq settings on top of the wire? between the wire? ate there other design elements?
how will you finish off the ends?
do you have any turq cuff bracelets on hand that you can measure with a caliper?
julie
2 Likes
Assuming that you are looking for a Native American look, the HR should be fairly heavy, maybe as much as 2X5 depending on the size of the stone. When you use the term base, is that the back of the bezel or are you soldering the HR to a piece of sheet? That being the case the HR can be lighter as the sheet backing will then form the structure of the bracelet. A little more information might help, but keep in mind that the bracelet and stone(s) should look proportional to each other…Rob
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Thanks for your help and good questions.
Let me explain more:
I will be making a more traditional Native American bracelet using three strands oh 1/2 round wire to be making the majority of the cuff. I will be using a turquoise stone between a dollar or half dollar in size that will be mounted by a silver bezel to a silver back plate that will also also have some embellishment other than just the stone.
The three half round wires will be soldered at the ends for say 1 to 3 inches and then will open up toward the stone/back plate and then come back together to complete the other end of the bracelet. Pretty traditional. I may solder cross pieces on either side of the central unit to add enhancement and or stability. Pretty basic.
I need some guidelines as to where to start with size of the half round wire. To keep it simple. It will be basic half round and not flat nor high domed half round…
Also. Is there somewhere a chart that will show the actual dimensions of the half round wire compared to gauge? I can also use a similar chart for round and square wire. Dimensions would prefer to be in mm but I am capable of converting.
Hope this helps. Thanks
Mike
Most suppliers that I deal with describe their HR wire in mm dimensions…Rob
Following is a link to two bracelets that I make that come closest, for me, to the bracelet that you want to make. The turquoise is about 18 mm in diameter and the wire is slightly flattened 12 gauge wire. The larger stone is a Zebra Jasper about 30 mm in diameter and the wire is 2 mm square wire. Try to keep everything in proportion. Good luck…Rob
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hi,
here is one wire gauge/ decimal/ millimeter chart
https://www.carreracasting.com/charts/wire-gauge
try searching for “wire gauge to millimeter conversion chart”
until Rio Grande stopped printing catalogs (sad day when they stopped!) i would find this info there…
julie
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Hi,
so for half round wire, the gauge refers to the wire width, and the dome height/ wire thickness would then be approximately half of that for regular 50% done height wire…
take a look at the below link to Rio Grande half round wire…you can click on a gauge, and then scroll down and click on specs to see the dimensions in mm.
since you are using half round, where the thickness is one half that of what the gauge signifies, perhaps look at 6gg, which is approx 2mm thick and 4mm wide
julie
Thank you Rob for those great images of your cuffs. So helpful to see mm measurements for the stones. Using comparisons to American coins is exasperating for those of us who do not live in the USA!
Cheers
Willie
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Welcome to the community.
Off topic sort of, are you going to place something behind the stone, such as wood sliver, a bit of wood dust? The reason I ask is because I have read, that those beautiful stones have a tendency to crack once mounted and set. Just asking because I have one I’m worried about cracking.
Blessings
Hi,
ya know?…your post made me wonder about something…i always assumed wood, sawdust etc was used primarily to raise or level a cabochon in a bezel setting…
but now…I am wondering…if it is also to allow for a sort of firm cushion under the stone…that sort of “gives” a wee bit when setting…so that compression pressure against the stone is not directly onto the baseplate metal…especially if the stone has thinner edges…
hmmm
julie
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I seen a video years ago, a Navajo teacher was showing this technique. She used it in her setting. I only ask because I have a love for these stones. She used I believe sand? I can’t remember as it was many moons ago.
Blessings,
Dana
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