I know that the Koil Kutter has been talked about quite a bit in other threads, but I wanted to find out - months down the line - if anyone has one, and if so, what's it like. Hind sight is a wonderful thing - if you have it.

Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks!

PS - I have been in touch with Dave Arens, and have a price list and details etc.

The kk is one of the best tools I've ever bought.

For anyone serious about maille, it's a must have (unless you can afford a Jump Ringer system ;) )

However, with silver prices as they are at the moment, it's not necessarily the cheapest way of getting your rings - especially once you factor in the cost of the Kutter, Dremel or Proxxon to run it, tumbler etc.

If you only do a small amount of chain making, but want to make rather than buy your rings, a jeweller's saw is more than adequate tbh, and once you get the hang of using one, can be almost as quick for small quantities.

george

OO! What you say is interesting George - I already have the hand tool (Dremel style thingy), but why would I need a tumbler? I thought I'd only have to wind the wire, and cut them. Goodness, I really know how to get myself into more trouble!

The things is, I'm not going to get into maille seriously (well, I don't think so anyway). But I do like the idea of being able to make my own rings in whatever size I need at the time. Buying bags of each size is a drag. Or am I being silly?

I've heard that jeweller's saws are not very easy to use, and can take a while to do the rings. I've tried with cutters, but the ends were really bad. That's why I was looking at the KK.

I'm not really sure what to do now.

You definitely need a tumbler if you are cutting your own rings. It deburrs and polishes them in one step.

If I'm just cutting a few rings in a given size, I still tend to just saw them (it really is quick once you get the hang of it) or flush cut - the trick to this is to get a really good pair of cutters (lindström or swanström for preference) and cut/reverse/cut/reverse/cut, discarding the tiny bit of wire that's not flush between each flush cut. This method is particularly good for getting very accurately sized rings as there's no kerf to take into account.

And for some odd sizes - I still buy in rings rather than do my own!

There's excellent advice in a couple of old threads about using a saw to cut rings - for both styles of cutting (inside or outside the coil) - and a good saw is under a tenner on ebay.

I should add that when I was still buying rings, I had no problem with buying a range of sizes - if you calculate your AR's carefully, you can get away with having a pretty small range of sizes to cover off a lot of different weaves.

hth
george

Well, I was going to write a reply about how good the koil kutter is but a saw is good too but George has beaten me to it! Her advice is great!
Jo x

i my koil kutter, just wanted to say that, lol

Thanks George and everyone else for your advice!

I've decided to go with a saw - I don't want to cut that many rings - it's just the odd few here and there, and I think that the KK will be too much. I have a few reels of wire that I want to experiment with - so I'm getting a saw from Cookson.

Now - blades. I read somewhere that size 6/0 is fine for cutting rings. Is this right? Or do I need size 8/0 which is finer? Bear in mind I'm not going to be doing that much. I'll be cutting copper at the moment, and other half hard type wires. Any advice please? Thanks everyone.

Hello,

I just ordered a Koil Kutter. Been putting off for ages but finally did my order.

Also I have ordered Daves 'Proxxon' powertool. As I read that Proxxon works better than the Dremel.
Proxxon is similar to the Dremel and you can buy in Europe.
One person said Proxxon is quieter at cutting the rings and Dremel can produce more dust?
A few chainmaillers have said they prefer the Proxxon for cutting rings.

Julz