Reworking of a necklace
Reworking a necklace is one of the more challenging tasks in goldsmithing – especially when settings have to be removed, recombined and welded to protect the stones. Using the example of a white gold necklace with stones set in yellow gold, this tutorial shows how individual settings can be cleanly separated and reworked into new pieces of jewelry – in this case earrings – without endangering the remaining stones and settings. In this example, there are three stones set in yellow gold on the necklace The outer settings are to be removed to make earrings. The middle stone remains in the necklace.
Prepare
The necklace is separated at the points indicated.
Some material from the outer settings should remain at the ends of the necklace chain. The connection points are filed flat to create a well-fitting welding joint.
Connection points
The welding joint can later be neatened up well at these joints. If you were to weld directly on the white gold chain, old solder and galvanic coatings such as rhodium plating would also have to be removed.
Welding the necklace
The material at the end of the collier chain is welded all the way around to the middle frame. The standard setting with 30 % welding power and 4 ms pulse duration is used for this.
Serging the frames
Then the outer frames are trimmed.
Welding eyelets
The eyelets are welded all around with the following setting:
Angle/joint mode, 18 % power / 2 ms pulse duration
A freshly ground electrode should be used in order to be able to weld successfully in the narrow joint in the front area of the eyelets.
Reinforce eyelets
After welding, additional material is applied to reinforce the eyelet on the one hand, but also to obtain sufficient material application so that it can then be trimmed.
The scraper mode is very suitable for fine material application.
Neaten the eyelets
To clean up, excess material is smoothed with an upsetting roller and then filed, ground and polished. All of this work can be easily carried out under a microscope after the welding handpiece has been turned to the side.
Result
The ear hooks are hooked in.
The piece is now finished.
