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.