The Work in the Wire: The Making of Silver Wire

Having plenty of gold or silver wire at your disposal is a necessity for a jeweller. Here Ian makes a coil of silver wire, to make jump rings out of for chain and bracelet repairs.
Starring Ian Singleton, Adam Bramhald. Shot and Edited by Michael Bramhald

[@beautgrainger147]

You seem to make it anbit simpler than some, like using the bench vice.. I just came here after fancying using green gold for some small detail and discovering I'd need to draw it. I don't have a mill but could make some cylindrical or square dies for a flypress - to squish it kinda round before drawing.. or stick some rollers on my milling machine spindle and vice.

[@JoinTheTechnicians]

Holy cow, awesome! This video is the most complete demonstration I've seen to date.

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Why, thank you very much! :)

[@anthonysupplee858]

I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic.. Not one word spoken... Do we use flat rollers? Square? This is a joke

[@giancarloandrebravoabanto7091]

very professional, nice work

[@davidmunro2077]

At the start it looked like a job for the lone ranger, a silver bullet 😂

[@m.a_sky_walker]

And this is why it is so necessary for me, (newbiejewellerlol), to save up and buy silver wire in the gauges I require in bulk!! Thank you for this video, was sitting and moaning over the cost of said bulk materials plus postage😊, but now I appreciate it may be quite labour intensive and therefore totally worth it😉. Serious envy of your work shop and tool collection though,(sigh🤩), I have read some other comments and noted you have since upgraded and downsized on elbow room 🤔 so will be interested to see that too! Thanks again.

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Thanks very much for the comment. Great name, Count Dookoo, haha. You are right, it is ridiculous how much effort is required to draw wire yourself, and how quickly you run out! Sometimes we order in (price of gold wire is absolutely ridiculous though, so barely order that), but mostly get one of us to make a job lot. Yes, we've sadly not made many videos since moving to our new premises (Michael [aka me] works on the bench now so has much less time to produce proper videos). I have just compiled the most recent videos into a Playlist titled 'New Workshop Life' - kzbin.info/www/bejne/joXWaJRqppWti6M

[@hateonskillz318]

Great video loved how you rolled it through the mill but then brought it back negating the bend a rolling mill puts on metals when used was awesome to see. Also helpful seeing you use just a vice when using a draw plate. Seems like you work smarter rather than harder I can dig that. Been looking at draw benches but with a vice and sturdy surface seems quite effective. 👏

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Thank you very much. Yes, we have a draw bench now, but this is a very effective method if an expensive resource like that isn’t accessible/affordable. Draw benches do have their drawbacks in that (unless you’ve got a really long one) the length of wire you can draw is limited. But then if you need it to be even longer, you can just use the plate and vice technique to go further manually. Thanks very much for watching.

[@MotorhomeDIY]

You make it look so easy I have just received my rolling mill When starting on the first one with the ingot do you keep on the first track until it’s tight to the last setting Then start on the next track down and repeat ? I’m struggling getting passed the 2mm track to the 1.5mm Once I get to that one it leaves track lines in the wire like my wire is to wide for that track Any help much appreciated

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

@@MotorhomeDIY Hi. Sorry for such a belated reply! Are you making square wire with your tracks? If it’s too wide for the next track (which it pretty much always is), you can anneal the wire and run it through the same track along the alternate edge (as if on its side) to which you have been rolling (which will have formed a bit wider when rolling your top edge). Might have to do an update on this video to include such things.

[@gazzmell1155]

No pickling? The oxides are driven into the surface when you pull the wire through the draw plate if you don't remove them with pickle first. And why no oil or bees wax when you draw the wire?

[@TheRealDToTsO]

Is it possible to fill the whole cavity for lots of wire stock? I can't seem to get half filled without over pour out cooling.

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

It is possible, but very difficult with a microweld unit. Where abouts in the cavity are you pouring the metal into (i.e. at the nearside, in the middle, at the far side etc.)? A lot of jewellers nowadays have much more powerful and hotter torches, which cover wider areas than the microwelds we use - for the services we mostly carry out, we've not found it necessary to go bigger ourselves.

[@ristorinne5817]

Hello Morris Bywater. I am a silver hobbyist and a bought a budget mill. Only problem with it, is that it has rollers only for sheet, triangular, and half round. And there is no way to change both rollers, only the top roller. So i have always a flat roller at the bottom. If i may ask, is it possible to make first a half round wire with the mill and then pull it through the draw plate to get round wire? Good video.

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Thanks for the comment, Risto. We don’t have a full round roller for our mills either, so when making round wire we draw square wire, then pull through the round drawplates to get it round. We do have a drawing bench now, which makes it a lot easier, but still do it manually from time to time. File the end of the half round wire round, so it is thin enough to show a good amount through the draw plate for you to pull. Just make sure you anneal the wire every 2 or 3 times you draw it through, to make it easier to pull and to not damage the resulting round wire. If triangular is an option, it will probably be easier to draw from that into round than half round. See around 04:20 of this video for us filing it round and drawing it down. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWitd5V_fK-EbtE

[@ristorinne5817]

@@morrisbywaterlimited Thank you for reply. I´ll try first with square.

[@taracampbell1811]

Hi, when melting the silver did you just melt scrap silver directly? Is there anything to be done before hand?

[@quickminutetv4170]

Do you know how much time I spend hammering just to get a length of silver one quarter that of the rolling mill?

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

I feel your pain eeLeerKay! That was us once upon a time. We've acquired a new machine since this video and moving into our new premises. While we have more individual workstations in our new workshop, the space is not as openplan as our old workshops, so drawing lengths of wire in this fashion is not really possible anymore as it would result in putting your elbow through a wall, lol. The new machine will feature in some upcoming videos I'm currently working on :)

[@SilkyJonson]

hoping you can answer a question for me. what is the machine called that you use to turn the silver bar into wire?

[@nikolozka1]

Rolling Mill

[@SilkyJonson]

@@nikolozka1 thank you.

[@nikolozka1]

@@SilkyJonson you welcome

[@jd2931]

so bad ass. nice video

[@Ra1276]

My mind has been blown 🤯

[@farkindy5019]

thanks for you solution my problem make in wire

[@masihnewbie0]

Thanks for make this video

[@tommyfisher2430]

Do you sale Silver Wire for making Colloidal Silver ?

[@danhoyt9961]

Why file the wire to a point rather than forging it?

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Thanks for the comment. Either way is fine. Filing the end to a point is a little more accurate than hitting with a hammer. You could easily hammer a bit further up than you wanted and go thinner than the desired thickness. To each their own I suppose with that part.

[@MrAj198]

You selling any of this wire? 😊

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

@@MrAj198 Hi. Thanks for comment. No we don’t sell wire. It would be much cheaper for you to buy it from Cooksons than pay us to make it for you.

[@elitedestroyer0083]

What is the name of equipment that rolled out the wire? (the one with the handle)

[@blackjack3320]

A rolling mill

[@elitedestroyer0083]

@@blackjack3320 After one year, an answer finally came. Ty

[@nesto7292]

Why does my silver crack when i put it in the rolling mill

[@morrisbywaterlimited]

Pepe Mercado Hi. This could be down to impurities in the silver melt. When melting down your silver, add a bit of Borax flux powder when the metal has liquified, which helps to draw out impurities. Then when rolling the silver, it’s important to anneal the metal frequently. You should be heating your metal up almost to melting point after a handful of turns through the rolling mill, in order to keep the molecules loose. It takes a bit of practice and experience to know how many times the metal can pass through the rolling mill before it needs annealing again. It gets a bit tedious having to constantly warm up your metal, cool it in acid then water, then back to the rolling mill, but it prevents the molecules becoming too rigid, which results in cracked and brittle metal.

[@hateonskillz318]

Annealing is crucial to forming doesn't mean it's not real gold or silver. It means that it has been work hardened and wants to stay in place or keep the form it has taken shape of.

[@sashasoule4585]

Blowtorch to light pink and dunk, work on it some more until it resists changing shape and repeat the process. This anneals the work hardened silver or gold.

[@skidadle3549]

Hehe my teacher sent this so we can watch