Rob MacLennan

The majority of us here are makers, not buyers.

Facebook definitely took the wind out of the sails, of a whole lot of fora. Pity, too, because a forum is a far better and easier place to have actual discussions than is something like FB.

The Ring Lord sells jeweler's slotting saw blades and arbors to hold them, in their Tools Section. I originally started cutting my own rings by drilling an appropriately sized hole for the coils I was cutting in a block of wood, clamping that to a drill press, then using the slotting saw and arbor in the drill press to cut them. I later built my own cutting rig, but there are numerous ways to use the blade and arbor. There's a commercial solution called "The Ringinator" that operates in a similar manner. https://www.ringinator.com/ This is my rig. The video also shows the hand-run windlass, that I used to use for making coils. I've since made a powered coiler.

I try to go easy on the pressure, when using toothed pliers. Just enough to get the job done. I've also been experimenting with toothless parallel action pliers; kind to rings, not so kind to hands.

You need a rig that will hold the coil in place while cutting and that will let you cut the whole coil in one go. You could either build something (I did), or use a commercial solution like a Koil Kutter.

Come to think of it there looks to be an off-centre deformation in that ring, in the bottom left.

Very strange. Can't say that I've ever had that problem. See if you can make out what I'm doing in this brief video and compare to what you're doing.

Could you post a picture for clarification?

Sink cut-outs, edge cuts, corner cuts.... Whatever you can get cheap Counter makers start out with standard size slabs and cut to suit, so there can be a fair bit of waste cuts.

My first replica sword purchase was a cheap broadsword, with all the balance of a crowbar. I've since learnt

I've got a Rawlings nylon waster longsword and it would give a good crack on the skull to an intruder, but a bat or bokken would do a better job.

I bought a "tooling side" some time back in the late '80s/early '90s to make a quiver with. Finally used some of the last bits last year, to make a pair of bracers for a friend. It was a bit on the tough side, but still workable. I did end up destroying a cheap four-prong punch on it though. *EDIT* I think that I do still have enough of it to sole a couple of boots though, which is the plan.

@Paladin An excellent point about cost. Though I only do the rare leather piece I've been diligently watching the sales at Tandy in order to stock up, and minimize my long term costs. If I take care of it, I think that I've got enough leather of various types for at least the next 5 years, possibly more, based on my limited use.