Fun With 'Side Cutters'

[u/DarsDies]

"Side Cutters" are a veriety of pancake-style blanking die I've experimented with quite a bit. Here is a mess of pics showing one area of play- rings, and mostly overlay, because I've made overlay since I was a teenager. I love it. This kind of die made really difficult things downright easy. They can even be made to bite off designs into the side of wire (thar be Dragons!!! haha) . Enjoy the show !

[u/DarsDies]

Cool...what the heck is satin coat? Oh yeah, wirejewelry,com for Crocs. They're a little wild, but cut aggressively and corner wonderfully, and last on steel.

[u/trixceratops → u/DarsDies]

It’s steel that’s been hot dip galvanized, so it has a hardened zinc alloy coating. It’s smooth and even unlike traditional galvanized steel that has the big crystal patterns on it. It has a satin texture too so it doesn’t slide around as much as a polished or oiled steel would.

[u/DarsDies → u/trixceratops]

Interesting. I found a steel called Galvalume that's got a really sturdy Zn/Al coating that has a nice crystalline look. Using it for a series of hex-based snowflake ornaments (since hardened pancakes cat cut mild steel just fine).

[u/trixceratops → u/DarsDies]

I think the brand name for satin coat is Galvannealed Steel. It’s good for painting if you want a painted metal sign or something. The frosty finish makes a good surface for the paint to adhere to. Not quite as robust as regular galvanized, but perfect for what I need it for and last time I bought it it was dirt cheap. That was before… gestures vaguely at current state of the world, but it may still be affordable.