Very short tips, flat nose pliers are used for gripping, opening and closing jump rings. Tronex offers a standard duty version and a heavier duty version along with straight and oblique tips.
P549 • Overall Length: 4.6” (117mm) - Tip Length: .45” (11mm)
P749 • Overall Length: 5.6” (142mm) - Tip Length: .45” (11mm)
Recommended gauge usage: 12awg and finer AA or BA/ 16awg SS
Please visit our "Selecting The Right Pliers" guide to help in the selection of the right pliers.
Tronex’s Chainmaille specific plies offer many advantages over trying to use standard pliers for working with jump rings.
- The stubby jaws keep your hand closer to your work giving you better more control.
- The stubby jaws allow you more leverage/gripping power with less gripping action. This will cause less marring of your rings and less stress to your hand.
- The jaws of these pliers are designed to be parallel while holding a 16-18AWG ring. Yes, you can use them on other sizes of rings, but they are optimized for 16-18AWG rings. The advantage here is that when trying to hold a jump ring, your pliers are not trying to spit the ring out when gripping them like with traditional pliers do. This gives you a much better grip on the ring with less force. Again, this too reduces the marring of your rings and cause less stress to your hands and pliers.
These pliers are designed to allow you to work with jump rings without having to use the “Death Grip”. That death grip is what mars your rings, cause stress to your hands and breaks pliers. When transitioning from traditional pliers to these you will have to remind yourself that you can lighten up on the grip. Once you re-train yourself to do so, your hands will thank you, your pliers will thank you and your finished work will look that much better.
Oblique Nosed Chainmaille Pliers
You may have heard these referred to as angled, oblique or chisel nosed pliers. To simplify things, I will just refer to them as oblique nosed. The oblique nosed pliers have a couple of great advantages.
(#1) If you try using two flat nosed pliers, you have to hold them at 180 degrees from each other to get the best grip on the ring. This position in not comfortable for most and either you end up with sore wrists or you aren’t getting the best possible grip on the rings.
When using a pair of oblique nosed pliers in conjunction with a pair of flat nosed pliers, your hands end up being at much more natural and comfortable positions.
(#2) A pair of oblique nosed pliers can also be flipped over and used to get into tight spaces instead of having to have another pair of pliers.