Wallet Chain

November 9, 2009 10:59 AM

WalletChainFilter:Im looking for a very heavy duty thick worn in looking chain for my wallet. The one that came with it is just like every other cheap rinky dink chain. Anyone know where i can find one? Ive looked everywhere! Just to be clear this is what i have now and is NOT what im looking for. Thanks!!
posted by flipmiester99 to clothing, beauty, & fashion (13 comments total)

Hardware store? Home Depot? Dead biker?
posted by box at 11:08 AM on November 9

Etsy has a bunch.
posted by amro at 11:09 AM on November 9

You can find pretty thick chains at pet stores, too, though they're usually pricier than the hardware-store option.

Whatever chain you buy, if it's not worn-in-looking enough, you could probably attack it with a rasp or drag it behind your car for a while or something.
posted by box at 11:09 AM on November 9

Back in the mid-90's when I dressed the punk part to accompany the punk attitude, I didn't have the cash for a fancy chain drive wallet.

My solution was simple and much more effective in a fight. (No, really.)

I poked a hole in my wallet (yours already has a grommet hole I'm assuming) and I put a small piece of hardware through that hole that's usually found with fencing or in the chain/rope aisle at the hardware store. It looks like a very small O carabiner, but instead of the gate closing and opening laterally, it simply screws up and down to lock the ring in place.

Then I went to X store and bought a large dog choker chain. One ring went inside the little psuedo-carabiner thing and attached it to my wallet. The other end went through one of my decommissioned D shaped carabiners, where it clipped to my belt loop. I suppose I could have accomplished the same thing with a regular clip, but...

My method served as a great deterrent when groups of rednecks threatened violence, because I could unscrew my wallet---pop the chain ring through the carabiner, hold the biner and have a pretty sweet chain flail at my disposal. I never used it, but I equipped it plenty of times.

Also held up to skateboard shenanigans way better than a regular dinky chain drive wallet chain.
posted by TomMelee at 11:11 AM on November 9

TomMelee....Do you have a pic by chance?
posted by flipmiester99 at 11:16 AM on November 9

I figured Hardware store....Just dont have the know how really.
posted by flipmiester99 at 11:17 AM on November 9

This site calls it a connector I guess? Look for "chain and chain hardware", it's the one shaped more like an 0 and less like a horseshoe. This pic has one, second down on the left.

Sorry, no pics from the BDC age. (before digital camera.)
posted by TomMelee at 11:26 AM on November 9

McMaster Carr has chain, and with some looking around their site you can probably find the other parts you need. They have just about everything.
posted by JulianDay at 11:40 AM on November 9

Be carefull with the chain. Some amusement parks and some pissed off airport gaurds will make you check in the chain and put it into your luggage if its too big.
posted by majortom1981 at 11:40 AM on November 9

For worn-in looking, you might want to consider getting galvanized chain and chain parts. It lacks the shiny surface that you might be wanting to avoid. All the parts that TomMelee describes should be available in it.

A good hardware store (or even the larger boxstore chains) should have a suitable collection of parts to play around with until you come up with something that suits.
posted by corprew at 12:09 PM on November 9

When you say you don't have the know-how, flipmeister99, I think that you might be selling yourself short. Once you're standing in front of that rack of spools of chain and that shelf full of snap rings and carabiners and whatnot, it will all become crystal clear. Plenty of my teenaged buddies figured it out with no problems, many of them while high.
posted by box at 12:32 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]

I wore a wallet chain for 10+ years, and mine for that entire time was a dog choke collar, just like TomMelee. Very similar to this random link found via web search for "wallet chain"
posted by namewithoutwords at 12:42 PM on November 9

Thanks...I bought everything i needed at Home depot and i made out like a champ. Thanks Everyone! One last thing, they only had a really shiny chain. How can i get it to look weathered? I think its some kind of chrome on the chain.
posted by flipmiester99 at 10:13 AM on November 10