One of the most essential skills in jewelry making is to form a perfect eye loop on jewelry wire. Wire loops are an important part of rosaries, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces among other chain-link jewelry pieces. They create eye pins for holding together beads and jewelry pieces.
Wire loops also form round connectors for chaining together jewelry segments. You can use them to make beaded links.
Jewelers use different methods to loop wire. Some of them make the loops by hand, others use bail-making pliers or round nose pliers, while others use a one step looper tool.
In this post, I talk about 1 step looper pliers and why you need them if you do jewelry making as a business.
What Is 1 Step Wire Looper Pliers?
One step looping pliers are a type of jewelry pliers for looping wire. It makes a closed loop on a wire in just one step.
Unlike other wire looping pliers, a 1-step looper tool creates a loop and trims off the excess wire in just one squeeze on the handles. It makes the task of forming consistent loops on eye pins so easy.
Why do you need 1-step looper pliers?
The first reason why you should use 1 step looper pliers to create eye loops is consistency. This tool makes loops of consistent size and shape every time.
The second reason is speed! Unlike other wire looping pliers that require you to manually turn the wire or pliers to make a closed loop, 1-step looper pliers make a closed loop in one step, hence the name.
The third reason why one-step wire looper tool is better than other looping pliers is that it creates the loop and cuts off the excess instantly. You don’t need a separate pair of wire cutters.
Lastly, a 1 step wire looper is easy to use. You only need to know how to feed the wire through and the tool will loop your wire and trim off the excess in one squeeze.
Who needs a one step wire looper?
A one-step looping pliers is for anyone who makes lots of wire loops for rosaries, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and other wire jewelry items. It is a time saver and will also save your wrist from pain.
As you probably know, wire jewelry involves a lot of wrist movement to manipulate wire. This repetitive movement can be stressful to the wrist and can cause excessive pain.
Luckily, the 1-step looper tool is designed to take away most of the pain. You don’t have to twist your wrist to bend wire. All you need to do is squeeze the pliers and the mechanism will form really nice consistent loops for you.
But more importantly, a 1-step wire looper is a great relief for people who have problems with repetitive wrist motions and who would have trouble making numerous loops with regular pliers. They include the elderly, people with arthritic hands or carpal tunnel, or those who have undergone surgery and can’t turn the wrist. This tool takes makes it less painful to make wire loops.
Types Of One Step Looper Pliers
All one-step looping pliers are the same. They only differ in the size of the eye loops they make.
A looper can only make loops of one size. If it is designed for 2.5mm diameter loops, that is what you will always get. So, if you make eye loops of different sizes, you will need looper pliers for each size.
The most common sizes of one-step looper tools are 1.5mm, 2.25mm, and 3mm. However, you will need the 2.25mm size the most it is the standard size for most pre-made loop pins.
How To Use a One-Step Looper Tool
As I said, a one-step looper tool is easy to use. It involves 3 easy steps.
- Step 1: Hold the looper pliers so that the jaw with the hole on the side is on the right-hand side.
- Step 2: Feed the wire from the left through the middle of the pliers. Just below the bending pin and pointing towards the hole of the side of the right-hand jaw. If the wire is too long, just thread it through the hole.
- Step 3: Squeeze the pliers. The looping mechanism will cut and mold the loop at the same time. You don’t need to twist the wire manually. But if the loop is not fully closed, you can use chain nose pliers to bend it in slightly to close it.
Here is a video demonstrating how to loop jewelry wire with Beadsmith 1 step looper.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a 1-step loop maker is a must-have tool for looping head pins. You should add it to your list of essential jewelry pliers or wire wrapping pliers.
It is also the perfect tool for making uniform rounded ends on jewelry wires without hurting your fingers or wrist. Not to mention it saves your time significantly.
You need this tool if you make jewelry for a living or make lots of wire loops for your jewelry.
