Gold chain is a classic piece of jewelry that can be used as an everyday accessory or as a catchy item for creating an evening look. Sometimes it breaks or the lock breaks on it. But this is not a reason to spoil your mood: you just need to seek help from a jeweler who will fix your favorite thing.
Why are chains damaged?
Gold chains break for a variety of reasons:
- Poor quality alloy that causes the product to stretch under its own weight.
- Temporary wear: the links fray and the decoration breaks. Most often, links near the castle or in the middle, where a heavy suspension hangs, suffer.
- Mechanical damage when twisting, breaking.
- Thinning of the legs that support the stones, causing them to fall out.
- Rust in the lock: the spring in the locking mechanism is not made of gold, and therefore is subject to corrosion. Therefore, mechanisms like a carbine eventually fail. Also, the tongue may start to stick in the lock (when worn for a long time without removal).
In any of the above cases, repair is possible. There are a lot of gold chains, they all differ not only in design and sample, but also in the type of wire and the method of weaving. And some chains are damaged more often than others. For example, a product made from a hollow tube will break much faster than a similar jewelry made from solid wire, even if they look the same outwardly. The type of weaving is also important: jewelry made according to the “anchor”, “spikelet”, “figaro”, “rope” pattern will be strong and durable. The traditional herringbone and omega patterns tend to curl, which encourages wear and tear, and the serpentine catches on clothes.
Repair chain at home
Is it possible to repair gold chains at home and take money for it? You can, if you comply with all the laws of the Russian Federation on entrepreneurial activity. But everyone can repair their jewelry, it is also not forbidden to help friends and acquaintances at no cost. This requires not only skillful hands and a keen eye, but also special tools, such as a miniature vise. The order of work when repairing gold chains at home will be as follows:
- Determine the nature of the damage. If the lock is broken, then it will not be possible to make it yourself and it is better to buy a ready-made one. If the chain is seriously deformed, then it is almost impossible to repair it at home. Repair at home can be carried out with simple damage - a rupture or a rupture with deformation of several links.
- Remove damaged links.
- Prepare jewelry solder: 58 measures of gold, 11 measurescadmium, 12 measures of silver and 19 of copper. For exact proportions, you should use a pharmacy scale.
- Clamp the links in a vise. If you need to solder one broken ring, then for convenience you can pass two links adjacent to it through a needle (thin awl or knitting needle).
- Heat the junction with a soldering iron. Apply solder.
- Remove excess solder. Treat the seam with a small needle file to give it a more aesthetic appearance.
In this way, large and medium-sized products are connected, smaller ones require a different soldering technology (phosphor soldering). Solid wire items are easier to fix at home than hollow tube jewelry.
Repairing gold chains at a jeweler
The easiest way is to use the services of a jeweler - the repair price is not so high, with minor damage, the master repairs the product directly at the customer, and the quality of work will be noticeably better. The jeweler will easily repair the chain of any weaving, whether solid or hollow. But even here there are pitfalls.
Unfortunately, for every honest master there is one not quite honest. And, giving the jewelry for repair, the customer may be faced with the fact that he will be returned a completely different thing. The most common types of fraud are:
- stealing a part of the precious metal - the product "loses weight" during repair;
- stone substitution;
- overestimation of precious metal consumption (when increasing, changing).
You can protect yourself from some of the problems. If repairgold chains, bracelets or rings does not take place in your presence, then the master is obliged to weigh the product before and after work. Accept the product only dry - this trick is often used by unscrupulous jewelers who saturate the links with water. When stones need to be removed for repairs, ask them to do it in your presence and take it home. Otherwise, require careful measurement and description. And, of course, a receipt should be issued with a detailed description of all the information: weight, number and size of stones, etc.
Correction of jewelry length
Where can I repair a gold chain? As a rule, everyone knows the addresses of good jewelers, so you can simply ask your friends. But you can use reference books, the recommendation of a jewelry store, or you can find it in ads. Moreover, sometimes it is not so much repair that is needed as the rebirth of an old and boring decoration. Sometimes, in order for a piece of jewelry to become desirable and loved again, you just need to slightly adjust the length - reduce or increase.
With reduction, everything is simple - the jeweler will simply remove all unnecessary. But with the increase, you will have to tinker, as the master will need to carefully select the alloy of the desired sample and shade. The second service is much more expensive - the customer pays not only for the work, but also for the consumption of the precious metal.
Cost of repairs
How much will it cost to repair a gold chain? Minsk or Moscow is not so important, since in any region and any country there are expensive masters, andthere are beginner jewelers who do not ask for much for their services. A combination of different factors will be really important when determining the repair price: the nature of the damage, the complexity of weaving, the size, the type of wire (solid or hollow), the need to consume precious metals, etc. Therefore, depending on the complexity of the work, the master may ask 300-600 rubles., repairing silver items is usually slightly cheaper.
Repairing a lock on a gold chain will cost about the same amount, while sometimes it is more advisable not to repair the existing mechanism, but to install a new one.
Here are a few addresses in Minsk where they will gladly help you repair a chain or any other piece of jewelry:
- DA VINCI, st. Kuibyshev, 40.
- "Jewellery Workshop", Lobanka 105 (ZHES building).
- "Yuvelux", st. Ulyanovsk, 32.
- "Gold HERE", st. Moscow, 20.
- KROZA, st. Komsomolskaya, 7/28.
- "Black Diamond", st. L. Chaikina, 4a.