How to make a pendant from a cartridge case. Jewelry made from old live ammunition - the work of Impact Accessories studio

An original medallion in military style, inside of which you can send a small photo or a miniature thing dear to your heart, can be easily made from old cartridges. Since you will be working with life-threatening objects, make sure that they are completely safe and there is no risk of explosion.

Materials

To make a medallion from a cartridge with your own hands, prepare:

• two cartridges;
• a piece of copper wire;
• wire cutters;
• soldering iron;
• solder;
• Dremel with attachments for metal cutting and grinding;
• nail;
• hammer;
• vice.

Step 1. Take the first cartridge and clamp the plastic part in a vice.

Step 2. Warm up the sleeve with a blowtorch. Don't overdo it, 5 - 10 seconds will be enough. Carefully remove the sleeve from the plastic shell.

Step 3. Using a hammer and nail, remove the primer from the cartridge case. Try not to damage it. It will be needed for further work.

Step 4. Repeat steps one through three, inclusive, for the second cartridge. Please note that their caliber should be the same, but you should choose different brands. As practice has shown, for some reason cartridges of the same brand do not fit into each other well, and for this work this is a key point.

Step 5. Secure the second sleeve in a vice or other convenient way, and cut off part of the side walls.

Step 6. Take a small sanding block or Dremel with a sanding attachment and give it a good sanding. inner part two received cartridges. You need to remove any remaining plastic from the walls, and also clean the hole for the capsule from sharp metal edges.

Step 7. The side walls of the capsules also need to be cut off, and then the edges of the cuts must be carefully sanded.

Step 8. Insert the primers back into the holes on the cases. Secure them with epoxy glue.

Step 9. Place the sleeve, the height of the walls of which remains unchanged, onto a metal part of a suitable diameter. Carefully expand the diameter of the workpiece. Check that the second blank from the sleeve fits into the first and fits tightly.

Of all the anti-war peacekeeping actions, the most beautiful and creative were and remain art projects in which deadly weapons are transformed into harmless, cute little things filled with kindness and love. For example, in, like Pedro Reyes, from David Palmer, Magnus Gjoen, about whom we have already written. Or, here they are, beautiful decorations self made , made from spent bullets by the creative team of the studio Impact Accessories.

Some will say that it is a pendant, others will call it a pendant - the essence is not so important. In any case, we will look at how to make this product with your own hands from a 7.62 caliber bullet. This decoration will be a good souvenir or gift for a man who is a connoisseur of military affairs.

First of all, safety precautions. We are not responsible if your work (God forbid, of course) ends badly for you. We chose the 7.62 sniper cartridge, the drilling of which does not bode well. If you have a sighting-incendiary, tracer or armor-piercing-tracer cartridge, it is better to throw this idea out of your head - it is dangerous to process such bullets at home with your own hands.

Why pendant and why 7.62

To make the pendant with our own hands, we chose a 7.62 caliber bullet and there is an explanation for this. Firstly, the bullet size is 32 mm in height and this is much more noticeable than, for example, a 5.45 bullet. Secondly, the weight of the 7.62 bullet is almost 10 grams and it is weighty, tangible and somehow masculine, if you like. For example, a 5.45 bullet weighs only 3.4 grams, which seemed too little to us. Yes, and drilling such a small bullet size will be somewhat inconvenient.

However, these are just our comments and they do not mean at all that a cartridge with a 5.45 bullet is not suitable for making a pendant with your own hands. Perhaps you just want to make a small and light pendant, or maybe you have a bullet of this caliber lying around. If so, then the algorithm of actions is not much different from ours.

Bullet pendant: step by step description and photo

Here is a cartridge from which we will have to remove the bullet and make a pendant out of it with our own hands. This is a PS - a sniper cartridge for the Dragunov rifle, which was manufactured in 1977 and has been perfectly preserved to this day. The caliber, as already mentioned, of the bullet is 7.62 and this is quite enough for us to make a not large, but not small pendant (pendant).

First you need to remove the bullet. There are several methods and they are all good in their own way: you can hold the bullet with pliers and gently loosen it, you can use the force of your fingers, or you can drill a hole in wooden block with a diameter of 8 mm, insert the bullet inside the hole and loosen it in this way, holding the cartridge case with your hand. A small vice can also help you out. We abandoned pliers and a vice for one reason: we didn’t want to accidentally scratch the bullet. Drilling a hole in a block or board is an option, as soft wood will not leave marks on the bullet. But we refused this too, because we know that you can pull out a bullet easily and easily with your fingers.
The photo shows that after the first press the bullet gave in and bent the cartridge case slightly. Believe me, it is very simple and easy - the effort of an adult man will probably be enough. Next, carefully loosen the bullet and pull it out at the same time.

Here is a photo after disassembling the cartridge: the cartridge case, the gunpowder and the bullet itself.
We will leave the cartridge case just in case (we’ll still figure out what to make from it), we will also collect gunpowder - we will make a small rocket to demonstrate to the boys in the yard, as well as to instill curiosity and homemade crafts. But that’s all later, but for now on the agenda is a do-it-yourself pendant.

Actually, everything is simple - you just need to drill a hole where the cord, chain or ring will be threaded. But not everyone manages to do this without scratching the bullet. We solved this problem simply: we needed a piece of plastic window sill lying around, a vice and a sharp nail (a pencil, pen, marker or core will do - as long as we can put a mark on the plastic).

The photo shows how we continued the work: the plastic window sill was tightened in a vice, and using the bullet placed next to it, you can mark the place for the hole.
In our case, a hole 8 mm from the edge of the bullet will be made in the pendant, since the pendant will be attached to a simple nylon cord. If you want to insert a metal ring first, you should select exact location drilling to ensure the ring is seated accurately. Inside the plastic product there are random honeycombs and there were several of them where the bullet entered very tightly. So tight that concerns about bullet rotation or deflection when drilling were instantly eliminated.

If you still don’t understand what such wisdom is for, then let us explain. Many people don't know how to drill through a bullet and keep it smooth. appearance. You can hold it in a vice through a piece of rubber or wrap it with electrical tape to prevent the drill from slipping. But we had previously tried both options and they did not work: even if we cored the bullet, the drill immediately slipped upon contact and left a mark on the surface of the future pendant. In our case, the bullet was securely clamped, and the 1.5 mm plastic wall served as a kind of guide for the drill.

And here is the photo of the drilling process itself.
Nothing complicated when you have a screwdriver or drill with the ability to adjust the speed. As you understand, high speeds are not needed here. It is important that the drill is directed strictly horizontally and then the hole will not be beveled to one side. It is also advisable to mark the direction of the drill so that it passes through the center of the bullet, although even a slight deviation will not have a significant effect - the pendant will look beautiful. We carried out drilling with a 1.5 mm drill. We believe that large diameter holes are inappropriate for aesthetic reasons.

The hole is ready and now we recommend using a slightly larger drill to bore the edges of both holes.
Firstly, this will remove the burrs, and secondly, the cord will not rub against sharp edges. We used a 3.5 mm drill, which we got from the CISS printer kit. Just forget about using a drill or screwdriver - there is a risk that the drill will quickly enter the bullet at high speed and then you will ruin the workpiece. It's better to do it manually, just a couple of turns.

That's all, you made the pendant with your own hands, all that remains is to stretch the cord. We purchased a dark colored cord from a church store, but you can even use a chain if you wish.

Instead of a conclusion

It is not difficult to make a bullet pendant with your own hands, as you have already seen. Of the most important rules, always remember the following: not every bullet can be drilled and any scratch will be too noticeable on the surface. Regarding the first, the Internet can help you - there are many sites where the markings of cartridges are indicated. The second rule, or rather, its consequences depend on you. Accuracy and accuracy again – it will take very little time to make the pendant, so there is no need to rush.

This is probably the most creative disposal of shell casings from military bullets that have served their purpose. Now they can be considered symbols of pacifists. I think “We are for peace and beauty” is a suitable slogan for Impact Accessories.

The craftsmen of the creative jewelry studio take used cartridges, bullets and cartridges for scrap, and make original jewelry from them (rings, pendants, pendants, earrings and crosses), even custom-made ones with an individual design. Of course, everything is not so simple - the material of the bullets cannot be called malleable, it takes a lot of effort to straighten and align a small piece of metal. Surprisingly, the core of the empty cartridge case - the capsule - becomes the center of the decoration, its main part, which is “played out” in different ways to transform into different peaceful things.

In addition to polishing and engraving everything, the craftsmen decorate the “combat” jewelry with stones. The main attraction of the studio's collection is a cross made of a cartridge, which was made in Britain back in 1917. A true veteran who received a second life, beautiful and peaceful.

A few photos on the topic "How it's done"