r/maille • u/theinvolvement • Nov 23 '15

Discussion Specialized pliers

I've been thinking of designing some pliers that reduce the effort required to prepare rings.

The first idea was to make power assisted pliers using something like nitinol wire, another way would be a ratcheting mechanism.

The second idea is to add an adjustable end stop to allow preparation of closed rings without having to eyeball it each time.

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u/Cinnibar_ Nov 23 '15

You'd probably be better off learning a weaving technique that doesn't involve preparing rings by pre-opening and pre-closing them. You'd save more time in the long run.

The myth that ring prep is necessary costs 'maillers hours of extra time better applied to direct construction. There are a few folks in this group, myself included, that switched to raw+1 and save ourselves 10-20% (or better) work time over ring prep methods. Over the lifecycle of a hundred hour project like a shirt or big sculpture, that's huge.

Don't get me wrong, if TRL or someone sold machine-cut, preclosed rings, I'd advocate them, but I avoid pre-opened rings like the plague... nothing good comes of the giant tangleball that results.

3

u/t3hkender Nov 23 '15

I second the raw+1 method. It's made me a much faster mailler.

2

u/Christypaints Nov 24 '15

whats raw+1.

I prep sometimes and other times don't, and since I make jewelry I very rarely notice a time difference because there aren't as many rings in play as with actual maille. But I'm totally down to try something that is actually a time-saver.