The gold chain is a classic piece of jewelry that can be both everyday accessories and a catchy thing to create an evening look. Sometimes it breaks or a 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 are damaged for a number of reasons:
- Poor alloy, due to which the product is stretched 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 during twisting, breakage.
- Thinning of the legs supporting the stones, due to which they 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 over time fail. Also, the tongue may begin to jam in the lock (with long wear without removal).
In any of these cases, repair is possible. There are a lot of gold chains, all of them differ not only in design and fineness, but also in the type of wire and the way of weaving. And some chains are damaged more often than others. For example, a product from a hollow tube will tear much faster than a similar piece of solid wire, even if they look the same on the outside. The type of weaving is also important: the decoration made according to the scheme “anchor”, “spikelet”, “figaro”, “rope” will be strong and durable. The traditional "herringbone" and "omega" are often twisted, which contributes to wear, and the "snake" clings to clothes.
Chain repair 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 devices, for example, miniature vices. The procedure for the repair of gold chains at home will be as follows:
- Determine the nature of the damage. If the lock is broken, then you won’t be able to make it yourself and it’s better to buy it ready. If the chain is seriously deformed, then it is almost impossible to fix it at home. Repair at home can be done with simple damage - tearing or tearing with deformation of several links.
- Remove damaged links.
- Prepare a jewelry solder: 58 measures of gold, 11 measures of cadmium, 12 measures of silver and 19 - of copper. For accurate proportions, you should use a pharmacy scale.
- Clamp the links in a vice. If you want to solder one torn ring, then for convenience, you can pass two links adjacent to it through a needle (thin awl or knitting needle).
- Preheat the junction with a soldering iron. Apply solder.
- Remove excess solder. Finish the seam with a small file to give it a more aesthetic appearance.
In this way, large and medium-sized products are combined, smaller ones require a different soldering technology (soldering with phosphorus). It’s easier to repair things from solid wire at home than hollow tube jewelry.
Gold chain repair 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 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:
- theft of precious metals - the product "loses weight" during repair;
- substitution of stones;
- overestimation of precious metal consumption (when building, changing).
You can protect yourself from some of the problems. If the repair of gold chains, bracelets or rings is not in your presence, the master must weigh the product before and after work. Take the product only dry - this is a trick often used by unscrupulous jewelers who nourish the links with water. When you need to remove the stones for repairs, ask them to do it in your presence and take them home. Otherwise, require careful measurement and description. And, of course, a receipt should be issued in hand with a detailed description of all the information: weight, quantity and size of stones, etc.
Decoration Length Correction
Where can I repair a gold chain? The addresses of good jewelers, as a rule, are well-known to everyone, so you can banally ask friends. But you can use the reference books, a recommendation of a jewelry store or find it on ads. Moreover, sometimes it is not so much the repair that is needed, but rather the rebirth of the old and boring jewelry. Sometimes, in order to make jewelry once again desired and loved, you only need to slightly adjust the length - reduce or increase.
With a decrease, everything is simple - the jeweler will simply remove all unnecessary. But the increase will have to tinker with, as the master will need to carefully select the alloy of the desired sample and shade. The second service costs significantly more - the customer pays not only the work, but also the cost of precious metal.
Repair Cost
How much will a gold chain repair cost? Minsk or Moscow is not so important, since in any region and any country there are dear craftsmen, and there are beginner jewelers who do not ask so much for their services. The combination of different factors will be really important in determining the repair price: the nature of the damage, the complexity of weaving, the size, type of wire (solid or hollow), the need for precious metals to be consumed, etc. Therefore, depending on the complexity, the master may ask for 300-600 rubles. , repair of silver products is usually a little cheaper.
Repairing the 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 put in a new one.
Here are a few addresses in Minsk where you will be happy to help repair a chain or any other piece of jewelry:
- DA VINCI, st. Kuybysheva, 40.
- "Jewelery Workshop", Lobanka 105 (ZhES building).
- "Yuvelux", st. Ulyanovskaya, 32.
- "Gold HERE", st. Moscow, 20.
- KROZA, st. Komsomolskaya, 7/28.
- "Black Diamond", st. L. Chaikina, 4a.