All About Split Ring Findings And How To Use It

Hi there, in this video I will be telling you all about split rings. Those tiny little circles of metal that can really be useful in holding your jewelry together.

So split rings are used much in the same way as you would use a jump ring. But the benefit of a split ring is that it offers more security. Whereas a jump ring is just a ring of wire. It goes around once and it has an opening that you open and close to secure your jewelry together. A split ring actually goes around twice. And it's much like a key chain. So let me show you this. It's a little bit bigger. You can see the example. There are two important ways that it's like a key chain. Like a key chain the wire goes around twice. So unlike a jump ring there's no opening that things can work their way through or that can be pulled apart so that your jewelry would fail. Instead things have to be slid around just like you do when you put a key on a key chain. And I'll just give you an example with this key ring. You have to open one end and then whatever it is, whether it's a charm or piece of chain or whatever it is that you want to attach to your jewelry has to be twisted on to the ring of wire.

Another important similarity between a key chain and a split ring is that usually the wires hardened, it's annealed so that it springs back. You can't easily stretch it out of shape. This can make them tricky to use. I often say I have a love-hate relationship with split rings. Because while I love the security that they give to my jewelry, it does take a lot longer to put together a piece that uses split rings. And it's kind of difficult. They actually make a special tool just for opening split rings. And it has these two jaws. At first it looks like just a regular pair of pliers but you can see that one of the jaws has a tooth. And that is used. What you want to do is put it near the end of one of the wires of the split rings. And then you just put it right in between the two wires and you squeeze. And that will open it up. And then if you bend it at a 90-degree angle you can see that now that holds it open for you so that you could slide something else on to the split ring. And then work it around in the same way that I showed you before. Working it around so that your jewelry is secure.

Split rings are an excellent choice whenever you have something very precious that you don't want to risk at all losing. You might consider using a split ring instead of a jump ring to attach it. And split rings come, as you can see here, they come in different finishes. They come in your standard silver and gold, but you can find them in any finish that you can find jewelry in. And you can see they also come in different sizes. Seven millimeter, five millimeter, You'll find them in all different sizes.

So split rings are really useful to use when you don't mind taking a little extra time to make sure you have some extra security in your jewelry.
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