If you have some old silverware lying around, recycle the metal into a whimsical wind chime. This project is especially fun with tarnished, antique silverware. You can create a hanger with a wood block, embroidery hoop, or use a fork as your hanger. Here's how to make a silverware wind chime with just a few materials.

Materials:

• Old Silverware (at least 6 pieces)
• Heavy-Weight Fishing Line
• Power Drill and Drill Bit (1/8 inch)
• Drilling Oil (optional)
• C-Clamp
• Block of Wood
• Protective Eye Wear
• Metal File
• Pliers
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Gather your materials. Find the thinnest, most malleable silverware you can to make this project easier. You will need at least one fork for the centerpiece hanger of your wind chime and 5 utensils for the chimes. You can use assorted silverware for the "chimes" or all spoons for your chimes. Knives have thicker handles than other silverware generally and will be harder to drill.
2. To make drilling easier, secure silverware to wood block with a c-clamp. You may want to flatten the silverware slightly to make this easier.
3. Drill a hole into the handle end of each piece of silverware, including the central fork. Be careful as the metal will be hot after drilling. You can use drilling oil to assist.
4. Drill a hole into the center of your fork hanger, in the rectangle of metal right underneath the fork prongs. This will be the second hole in your fork hanger (the top hole will allow you to hang the wind chime).
5. Use your metal file to remove any sharp edges around the drilled holes. You don't want to snag your fishing line or your fingers!
6. Take your pliers and your fork hanger, and bend the four prongs of the fork up so that they point out in all four directions. For example, the two inner prongs can point east-west and the two outer prongs can point north-south. When bent out, the fork prongs should look like a compass and be parallel to the ground for hanging (90 degree angle from the handle of the fork.)
7. Use the pliers to bend the end of each fork prong up into a small loop.
8. Tie a 5-6 inch piece of fishing line through the center hole of your hanging fork (above the prongs). Tie one of your chimes to the end of the fishing line, through the hole in the handle.
   1. If you use a fork as your middle chime, you can turn into another hanger and create a 2-layer wind chime.
   2. Tie four other silverware chimes to the fork hanger, through the bent loops at the end of the prongs. Use slightly longer lengths of fishing wire to secure these outer chimes. You want the broadest part of the outer silverware (the round base on spoons) to hit the end of your inner hanger.
   3. Tie a piece of fishing line to the top of your fork hanger to hang your wind chime from a tree branch or porch.

Enjoy your handmade silverware wind chime.