Swarovski cutting through fireline question

Ask Kathy N-V what is stronger than fireline.

Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows

yes - it will help if you put a seed bead after the swar - it gives a buffer from the sharpness. You might try Soft Touch by SoftFlex.

What weight fireline?

here is a page about all kinds of threads - GSP (fireline/powerpro and the like) is also covered there.

Pamela Welborn Beading Design Creation and Instruction Buy My Kits - Buy My Patterns -

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 20:29:16 -0400, BeckiBead wrote (in message ):

I was going to say "a mother's love," but in light of the recent postings, I'll just say that I have never had any problems with Swarovski (or other Austrian Crystal) cutting Fireline. Even the crappy Chinese crystal with the sharp edges doesn't cut Fireline.

For thems that are new here, I did a bunch of tests with different threads (results are in the bead notes) and decided that FireLine, Power Pro and SpiderWire (all Dyneema/Spectra fishing lines, not normal fishing lines) are nearly indestructable when used in beading projects. There are some small differences between the brands of line, but pick whichever one you like best and go with it.

Coincidentally, I had to cut apart one of the original pieces I made using Fireline, a way-too-heavy amulet bag that has been hanging in my bedroom for over two years. It had an eight around herringbone necklace as a handle, and I thought it would get more use as a necklace than as part of the amulet bag.

Ay carumba! Even after two years of hanging on a nail, in and out of sunshine, and with NO special treatment, this stuff was as strong as ever. I had thought that slipping an Xacto knife between the bag and the handle would be sufficient to break the thread - after all, it's been two years. Wrong. I ended up having to break out the Children's Fiskars, and that cut the thread (with difficulty, because I didn't want to wreck the bag)

Way back when, I made a right angle weave bracelet for Manda, using multiple passes of Fireline. Being Manda (aka: The Destructor), she wore the bracelet to school and promptly lost it. Two days later, she found the bracelet, and asked me to repair it. It had been run over by "a few" school buses. The fire polished and pressed glass beads were fairly unrecognizable, but the round circles of fireline (from the RAW) were still intact. I've kept the bracelet for laughs, and someday soon I'll post pictures.

If the person is really concerned that Austrian Crystal will cut fireline, I'd consider putting a seed bead on each end of the crystal. I do this when working with bugle beads, even though I haven't had one cut fireline yet, either.

I'd be amazed to hear that someone had a problem, and I'd want some more details. Was it really Dyneema line, and did the edge of the crystal have an opportunity to "saw" against the thread? That's the only circumstance where I can see a thread failure.

Kathy N-V

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kathy N-V :

]Ay carumba! Even after two years of hanging on a nail, in and out of ]sunshine, and with NO special treatment, this stuff was as strong as ]ever. I had thought that slipping an Xacto knife between the bag and ]the handle would be sufficient to break the thread - after all, it's ]been two years. Wrong. I ended up having to break out the ]Children's Fiskars, and that cut the thread (with difficulty, because ]I didn't want to wreck the bag)

no kidding! SOMETIMES, nail clippers will work - but children's are hard to get between beads and close to them.

and i've never had anything cut fireline without a struggle!

They sell special cutters for Fireline - Suzanne Hye of vintagesuzanne on EBay sells them. Her Ebay store (and her "real" store) is Hye on Beads. Patti

Sooz