Old-Fashioned Chain - Wire Work Tutorial

This tutorial teaches step by step how to create "old-fashioned chain". This is one of the very first things I ever learned to make, many, many years ago, and remains one of my favorites. It is an excellent technique to utilize all those pesky little scraps staring at you from your workbench.

Materials suggested:
Wire 1/2 hard - square or round - 1 1/16 inch straight wire per link - 3 links per inch finished chain. Almost any gauge wire can be used, just keep in mind the larger the gauge, the harder the links are to form, and the higher chance of your fingers falling off
1 clasp of your choice

Tools needed:

Ruler
Cleaning cloth
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Flush wire cutters
Permanent marker (Sharpie)

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Step 1: Step 1

I keep several cigar boxes on my workbench to hold usable scrap wire. I try to sort it by gauge 18 - 20 - 21 (the bulk of what I use for chain). When there is enough scrap, I sit and cut it to length and start making chain. If you don’t have that much scrap handy or simply want a chain NOW, cut your wire pieces 1 1/16" long.