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Wire Temper and Jump Rings

by Judy Larson
Years ago, there was a turning point, one of many, in my jewelry making journey - I fell in love with chainmaille. After making a set of Byzantine chains, which use a LOT of jump rings, I realized just how many jump rings I had been using in all my projects. What really hit home, though, was how much I spent on them over the years. At that point, I knew I had to start making my own.
Instructions
The majority of my jump rings are made using a metric set of mandrels, separately labeled and stored in baseball card sleeves in a three-ring binder, easily accessible on a shelf close to my work surface.
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , chain maille
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , storing jump rings
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , storing jump rings
Making my own jump rings means that they are not made to the exacting size specifications that a factory would have because it is harder to control the tightness of the wire being wound around a mandrel using your hand as compared to a machine. To obtain consistency in jump ring size, coiling by machine, in my case with a drill, is better than coiling by hand. As we age, we may lose some hand strength. Using a heavier leather glove may help holding the wire tight a bit easier.
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , coiling wire for jump rings
Since each type of wire has a different temper/hardness, each will have a different springiness when coiling on a mandrel. The wires I most often use are listed from softest (least springy) to hardest (most springy). The softest wire can be coiled more tightly around a mandrel than the hardest, which will end up looser on the mandrel. That means jump rings made with softer wires at the top of the list may end up a bit smaller than jump rings made with wire at the bottom of the list.

DS-Dead Soft HH-Half Hard FH-Full Hard
Fine silver

DS Sterling Silver

DS Copper

DS Gold-filled

DS Brass

DS Argentium

HH Copper

Niobium

HH Argentium

FH Gold-filled

FH Argentium

There are some gauges and tempers of wire I always keep on hand. My wire stash includes 24 gauge and finer wire as well as 16 gauge and heavier wire only in dead-soft temper. In my work, I find that I use all tempers available in 22, 20, and 18 gauge wire.
What are the different tempers used for:

Full-hard wire is perfect to use for jump rings that will not be soldered. However, even though the wire is hard, the jump ring could still be pulled open. Therefore, when using 18 gauge and finer jump rings, consider using two jump rings to connect components to be safer. Full-hard wire is the top choice to use when making ear wires since it does not easily bend out of shape.

Use half-hard wire to make jump rings. It also makes an excellent core/base wire for wire wrapping/weaving because it bends more easily than full-hard wire but holds its shape better than dead-soft wire.

Dead-soft wire is at the top of the list to use when wire wrapping/weaving. It is easier to manipulate than half-hard or full-hard. Kinks and bends are easier to straighten using dead-soft wire, where half-hard or full-hard wire would be more likely to break at those points. Because dead-soft wire is so malleable, it is easier to wind the wire tightly against a mandrel to obtain a jump ring that is as exact in size as possible.

When making bracelets, even a minute difference in length can mean a bracelet will slide right off, so it is important to get the length just right. Before any permanent connections were made, different dead soft jump rings were auditioned, starting with dead-soft 4mm ID jump rings. The bracelet was too short. Then dead-soft 4.5mm ID jump rings were used. The bracelet was too long. From experience I knew that my half-hard jump rings were just a hair larger than the dead soft ones of the same size because of the difference in the springiness of the wire. I went back to the 4mm ID jump rings, this time, using half-hard ones, and the bracelet is now "just right" in length.
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , bracelet
You might be interested to see the difference between the 4mm ID jump ring not used and the one used. Since it is a bit harder to obtain an accurate interior diameter ID measurement, I measured the outside diameter OD of several dead-soft (left) and several half-hard (right) jump rings to make sure the outer diameters did not vary. Just that little bit of difference in eight jump rings made all the difference between this bracelet fitting and not fitting.
Pro Tip: Store jump rings made with different tempers and types of wire separately.
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , jump rings
Judy Larson's Wire Temper and Jump Rings - , Findings & Components, Toggles & Clasps, Earwire & Headpin, , jump ring storage

Materials

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Tools

The Quad Jump Ring Former
DUR-1312
  • DUR-1312
  • Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
  • Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
  • Price: $380.00
  • Gold Club Price: $285.00
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  • Category: Findings
  • Technique(s): General Education

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