From Fozzee.net
Let me preface this by saying that I'm a certified tool freak. Anyhow, when I started armoring, I was at a loss for what sort of tools to use for bending and cutting rings. I hope to save someone the huge pain in the (hands) by giving a bit of advice.
Pliers
Weaving Italian pattern requires lots of long chains, 1-in-1 which are then joined together to form the fabric. Making the chain requires pliers that can get a good grip on the rings, and need not be small enough to work in the confined spaces between chain rows. Thus, pliers with bent or rounded noses tend to work best. A side note, I prefer spring-loaded pliers in my left hand, as being right handed, I lack the dexterity to both move the pliers accurately and worry about manually opening them.
More Pliers
Unlike the pliers I prefer for chaining, weaving requires more dexterity in tight spaces. For this, I switch to 2 pair of needle-nose pliers, the left pair still being spring-loaded and slightly smaller than the right. While it would be possible to weave with one pair of pointy pliers and one pair blunt, this is just what I had handy.
Update: As of mid-2008, both the blue-handled pliers, and the Xcelite needle nose are missing in action.
Cable Cutters
I've tried more than a few implements for cutting rings, and these seem to work the best. What I came up with was a pair of bypass cutters, Tool Shop brand. They seem to be a clone of the Felco C7 cable cutters, primarily designed for cutting wire rope, but they serve my purposes well, cutting 2-4 rings of 16ga steel wire at a time. Unlike the C7s, this pair cost about $7 (and has a lifetime warranty) where the Felcos are almost $65 on Amazon.
Side Cutters
These are what I started out using to cut rings. One at a time, I cut approximately 300 links before my hands got tired. Unlike the bypass cutters, these have more of a squeeze and snap action, rather than a nice fluid motion. These are nice to keep around for cleaning up bad cuts, and for cutting steel wire 20ga and smaller, as the bypass cutters just tear it up.
Mini Bolt Cutters
After I got frustrated with the side cutters not being ballsy enough for 16ga steel, I headed to Menards and found these for about $4. I know you get what you pay for, but Lifetime Guarantee and $4, ya cant beat that with a light mace... Anyhow, they worked great for a hundred links or so... you could still only go a link or 2 at a time, because the jaw shape prevented them from getting the whole cutting face inside the coil. Anyhow, the rivets didn't hold up, and after a while, the jaws started skewing, so back they went. I'd venture that a decent pair of these would work fine, but the bypass cutters still seem to work better than these ever did.
Cutoff Wheel
This abrasive cutoff wheel was an impulse buy at the hardware store. I thought the kerf was a bit large at 1/16th (it was) and was concerned about blade wear and keeping any sort of jig aligned as the blade wore. As it turns out, both of those are true. To cut effectively with a wheel like this, you need to work from one end, and cut a link at a time. Truth is, it's more trouble than it's worth for my purposes. Moreover, you'll probably be happier with the finer kerf of the Dremel style cutoff wheels, or for softer metals, maybe even a fine toothed saw.
