Saving the Bracelet

Being a jeweller will typically mean I have the unpleasant task of telling people their jewellery is dead. Hinges worn through, or just generally just finished. People vest a lot of money and emotion into a piece of jewellery and sometimes they will spring for a "save" even though the cost is prohibitive..  This is the story of one of those pieces..

This Bracelet is worn through in all its hinge areas and was breaking continuously, so  we are going to beef it up with some eighteen carat rails and turn it into a hinged bangle rather than a bracelet.

Firstly we need to roll down some beam and turn it into the wire for the rails

Then the awkward job of tacking the rails onto the bracelet ends. this part is done free hand.

after which we can wire the remained up and start soldering it all together

Give it a nice bath in H2SO4 for 30 minutes or so..

then start shaping it, this will require a resolder here and there as solder tends to be brittle...

and finally the single hinge in the rear is added

finally some polishing and a good swim in the rhodium and she is good as new!