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Weaving / braiding wire?

zaroba

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
The wife of one of my coworkers makes beautiful braided wire coils. Twisted, simple braids, chain-link braids, etc. They look stunning.

Back when I was a teen I could *easily* braid plastic lace in various styles for keychains, bracelets, etc. Boxes, spirals, etc. any mix of colors or width/length and even changing the color of the lace mid-weave. I still remember how so figured I would try my hand at weaving some 28 gauge kanthal. lol, what a fucking nightmare. Besides it wanting to spiral back up (even though I've had it stretched straight for 2 days) resulting in kinks, I could not pull it tight at all. It looked like a rats nest. Gave up after 5 mins when one of the strands broke from trying to pull it tight.

So, how do people do it?
Do I have to resort to something like a small clamp to hold the wire and tweezers/needlenose to weave it tight without having to pull on it at all? Or is there some other trick to braiding it?

I'm sure a thicker wire would work better, but then too low resistance might become an issue.
 

zaroba

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
Tried a 2nd time, this time with just a few inches of wire.
Managed to make a few weaves, hardly tight enough to use as a coil though.
But my hands and wrists started hurting so stopped.
 

BigNasty

Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Tried a 2nd time, this time with just a few inches of wire.
Managed to make a few weaves, hardly tight enough to use as a coil though.
But my hands and wrists started hurting so stopped.
small needle nose vice grips or hemostats might help.. try torching first... torch after a few plaits.
 

AmandaD

Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
You need to clamp the ends to something stable so you can keep the wire taut. Be sure the wire is annealed first (it probably is already) to make it soft enough to work with. The wire hardens as you work with it.
 

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