Stainless Steel Lion head Viking Knit

Stainless steel Viking Knit necklace with lion-head end caps and a spring gate clasp.

A while ago a friend heard that I had learned how to do Viking Knit, and she wanted to learn this too, so we got together over a drink and I demonstrated some of the techniques. (I can’t wait to see what she makes too!) As my demonstration, I decided to do a second piece with stainless steel. Although the material is quite a bit more challenging than the copper wire, I do appreciate that I don’t have to worry about the colour changing, and I really LIKE the look of stainless steel in the Viking Knit.

Before the draw plate

Original width of the stainless steel Viking Knit before going through the draw plate.

Original length of the stainless steel Viking Knit before going through the draw plate.

Like most of the other pieces I’ve made, I did this on my original dowel, which resulted in a piece of Viking Knit that was about 2.5 cm wide before pulling it through the draw plate.

After the draw plate

I did this piece in double-knit, and the resulting chain, when it came off the dowel was 61 cm long. I pulled it through the largest hole in my draw plate, which resulted in a chain 86 cm long in total and approximately 1 cm wide.

Finished width of the stainless steel Viking Knit after going through the largest hole in my draw plate.

Finished length of the stainless steel Viking Knit after going through the largest hole in my draw plate.

Adding the findings

Once the chain was finished, I cut it down to the size I needed (see back to my Lion-head silver Viking Knit project for some photos from that step)  and set the remainder aside (once I make something up with it, I’ll share that project with you too..) and then added some of the lion-head end-caps/terminals that I used on the silver piece. I also have dragons, snakes, skulls, and tigers, but I just really liked the lion for this one again.

Close up of the lion head end caps and spring gate clasp on the stainless steel Viking Knit necklace

Materials

I used Artistic Wire, Stainless Steel, 26 gauge. I used a full 30 yard / 27.43 meter spool. The spool was $7.30 at Beads & Plenty More.

 

Stainless steel Viking Knit necklace with lion-head end caps and a spring gate clasp.

Greek flat leather wrap bracelet

Blue and black Greek leather wrap bracelet

I haven’t just been doing Viking Knit lately – I also found some blue (with black edging) Greek Leather to make up a quick wrap bracelet with the interesting magnetic clasp from Suzie Q beads that I bought a long time ago.

Viking Knit bracelet

Silver Viking-Knit bracelet

Since I made up more of the silver-plated Viking Knit than I needed for my lion-head silver Viking Knit necklace, I decided to use the remaining chain for a bracelet.

Since the knit was already made (24 gauge non-tarnish silver wire) I just needed to add some end caps (which were from Beads & Plenty More and wired them into the chain. Since the chain wasn’t staying in the end caps securely with just the wire, I also added in a drop of adhesive which works with metal so the caps are really secure.

Silver Viking Knit with lion heads

Silver Viking Knit chain with lion-head end caps and spring-gate clasp

After using all of the wire I already had, I needed to head out to get more, so headed to the Northlands Beads & Plenty more. In particular I wanted to make some Viking Chain that I could use the gorgeous new lion-head end caps I’d received from an Etsy seller!

Unfortunately although I was looking for 26 gauge wire, their selection wasn’t great for what I wanted, so I ended up picking up some 24 gauge Non-Tarnish Silver (silver plated). The spool was 15 yards (13.72 meters) and it was $8.25

While working with the wire, I found it a little ‘stiffer’ than the 26 gauge, which was super soft – though it was still far easier to work with than the stainless steel I had started off with!

Viking Knit – red with leather fill

Completed red Viking Knit filled with black leather

When I purchased the wire for my first Viking Knit project and the Viking Knit class I had thought of using some wire I had picked up long before. This was the coloured copper wire I had avoided purchasing for Viking Knit at the class because of the concern of the wire losing it’s colour when it went through the draw plate, but hoped that it would be ok for another project.

How to add wires while doing Viking Knit – So simple!

I decided to do this project in the red-coated copper wire in single-knit instead of double-knit.  Since single-weave/single-knit Viking Knit goes a lot faster than double-weave, I was able to do a length of chain quite a bit faster (it still took a lot of time though!) than if I had done it in double-knit, so I’d be less upset if it did lose it’s colour through the draw plate. Like my Kumihimo project in black and red inspired by one of my favourite Finnish metal bands Turisas, once the red chain was knitted, I wanted to introduce black as well.