The fifth operation (illustrated in Fig. 5) consists in punching out the portions, _e_, of the core at each side of the cross stay of the link, so as to separate the cross stay from the outer ends of the adjacent links. This operation is performed by removing a portion only of the metal of the core which intervenes between the cross stay and the outer ends of the adjacent links enchained with the link under operation--that is to say, portions, _e*_, of the core are temporarily left attached to the outer ends of the links in order to avoid crippling or bending the bar, which might occur were the whole of this metal, which is ultimately to be removed, to be punched out at once, these portions, _e*_, being supported by the bed die in the operation of punching out the spaces, _e_, as hereinafter described. This operation having been repeated upon both pairs of webs, it will be observed that the rod-like form of the chain is now only maintained by the portion of the core at the points, _f_, where the inner side of the eye or bow of one link is united with that of the next one. The severing of these intervening portions of the core and the breaking up of the rod into the constituent links of the chain constitute the sixth operation. The sixth operation (illustrated in Fig. 6) is performed by torsion, and for this purpose one end of the rod is held fixed while the other is twisted once or twice in opposite directions, until by fatigue of the metal at the points, _f_, the whole of the links are severed almost at the same instant, and a chain of roughly formed stayed links is produced. The seventh operation (illustrated in Fig. 7) is to remove the superfluous projecting pieces of metal both from the inside and outside of the ends of the links. For this purpose the two ends of each link are operated on at the same time by two pairs of punches corresponding to the outline of the ends of the link. The eighth operation (illustrated in Fig. 8) is to bring the ends of the links to their finished rounded form. This is performed by stamping both ends of each link at the same time between pairs of shaping dies or swages. The ninth operation (illustrated in Fig. 9) is to bring the middle portion of each link--that is to say, the side members and the cross stay--to the finished rounded form, which is also performed by means of a pair of dies or swages.