Jumprings are generally made by coiling wire on a mandrel and then slitting the coil. The problem with this method is you lose a little material with the cut, the width of the saw blade, which means when the rings are closed tight they will no longer be exactly round. Also depending on the blade and exact process there can be burs, sharp edges or angled ends instead of flat. Machine cut are even worse than saw cut though as they have pinched ends that will never butt properly. I have learned this the hard way in my years of making chainmaille. I have become very particular about the rings I order.
I also have a tendency to spend hours working the rings before I begin assembling them into anything. I like to make sure they are flat and as close to perfectly round as I can get them, that the ends butt tight and proper, that they line up side to side and top to bottom. Call me crazy but do aim for perfection. I am not saying I always achieve it but at least I try.
I have seen some cheap and sloppy chainmaille for sale, whenever I see low price chainmaille I can't help but wonder are they using cheap poor quality rings or are they just sloppy because they rush and don't care?
Maybe it's both, maybe they don't know any better, maybe they just don't care. I just wonder how long something like that will last, as every misaligned, sloppy closure is an opening for snagging and stretching. Plus it can't be comfortable for your jewelry to scratch you all the time or get caught in your hair. :-(
My chainmaille is not cheap because I use quality rings and I work hard to make it as smooth, snag and scratch resistant and comfortable to wear as possible. I don't sell $8 or $10 bracelets I can't sell my work that cheap I spend too many hours working on them to undervalue them that much. Again I am not claiming to be perfect, I am not saying my chainmaille will never snag, I'm saying if you look closely quality is often visible.
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