katklause's
hook clasp tutorial 1. Obtain a 6" piece of wire which is at least 20g half-hard. Straighten the wire as much as possible either by hand or using nylon jawed pliers to reduce scratches. 2. Use pliers (chain nose, flat nose or needle nose will work) and bend wire to a 90 degree angle 2" in from one end: 
3. Continue bending the wire using your fingers or the pliers (depending on your gauge, pliers for larger wire) to create a hairpin turn. Use your pliers lightly to push the two sides of the wire together at the turn. Basically you are folding your wire, so that you have a 2" piece running parallel to the 4" piece. Your wire should not cross at all. In order to keep them parallel, you may need to straighten up the ends after you have the wire at the bend as close to each other as possible: 
4. With the hairpin portion at the top, it's time for your round nose pliers. Grab the very tip of the hairpin with the very tip of your pliers (part that forms the smallest loops), and bend the wire around the tips of the pliers to form something that looks like a tiny letter P. You basically want the tip of the hairpin to be looped back around to touch the wire: 
5. Hold the wire so that the loop you just made is facing you, with the flat side away. Using your round nose pliers again, grasp the piece about 1/4" from the loop (letter P) at the largest part of your pliers: 
Bending away from yourself, until the back side of the loop (letter P) meets the parallel wire. At this point, this should look like a hook clasp, 
...now how to attach it to your piece. 6. You should have two pieces of wire at the bottom of the hook. One is shorter than the other. Snip the shorter of the wires to about 3/8" from the bottom of the hook you just formed. The best way that I judge this is cut it short enough so that when you make your eye loop this piece of wire is not sticking out in the middle of it. In the beginning, use these measurements until you understand what I am referring to... 7. Using your pliers (chain nose, flat nose or needle nose), with the hook to the bottom and wire ends at top, grasp the longer piece of wire and bend it away from the shorter piece at a 90 degree angle. When holding the hook in your hand and looking at it straight on, your longer wire should be at a 90 degree angle to the right (or left) going the opposite way of the short wire: 
8. Hold the hook in your non-dominant hand, so that the longer piece you just bent is pointing towards you. Grasp the wire about 1/4" away from the bend with your round nose pliers and start forming a loop. (If you do not find this process easy or successful for you...form your loop or eye however it is easiest for you, just ensure that it is centered over your hook) Stop looping if you either complete the loop or if you were to continue you would pull out the bend that you made in step 7. I usually use the pliers to loop half way, and then just grap the end of the wire and wrap it around the pliers to finish the loop. I have a rough time with pulling the bend out of my wire. When you have a loop that is centered over the wire hook/clasp make sure that you pull the remaining tail of wire following the form of the loop, as to continue the loop, so that it is now perpendicular to your hook: 
9. During this step I use my nylon jawed pliers, as I seem to have some sort of death grip in this step which results is scratched or smushed wire, but chain nose or flat nose would work just as well...just go easy on the grip. Another helpful hint, to make this wrapping step more easy and even ....I bend the very end of the perpendicular piece of wire so that is looks like a little crank. Just a 90 degree bend at the very tip of it towards your dominant hand. Using your pliers in your non-dominant hand, grasp the loop you just made. With your dominant hand grasp the piece of wire and begin wrapping it in the space between the loop and the hook. You do not need to force this process if you just wrap in a circular motion each wrap should lay next to the previous one. You should probably give it about 3-4 good tight wraps and end it on the inside side of the clasp. Snip off any remaining piece of wire that has not been used in the wrap (your leftovers) and pinch it down (remove sharp pointy bits) with your pliers (needle nose work well here): 
Hook complete....
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| Tutorial
courtesy of katklause Pictures courtesy of Armoured Raven ^_^ |
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