How can I repair a broken chain?

You wear your favorite necklace every day and now it has broken? That's really unfortunate! Especially high-quality 18-carat gold chains and 925 sterling silver chains like those from Maren Jewellery are robustly crafted and should be your companions forever. However, all jewelry chains are designed to break under strong tension to avoid cutting into your skin.

Unfortunately, it has happened, and your chain is broken. In the following journal, we will give you some tips on how you can repair your chain yourself or what options we offer to repair your chain.

Silver in the most commonly used alloy for jewelry, 925, is slightly softer than gold and therefore easier to shape. This can make repairs easier for you.

In general, however, all solid gold and silver chains can be repaired equally. This is the beauty of jewelry made from pure metal, as it can always be repaired or melted down to create something beautiful and new.

However, if your chain is gold-plated, it may be more difficult to solder the chain back together. But simply bending the loops together to reconnect the chain is also possible here.

There are a few ways to repair chain links and thus reconnect the chain at the broken point. Below, we will show you a few ideas on how you can proceed, depending on how and where your chain is broken.

First, you should examine the chain; where is it broken? In the middle or at the clasp, and are all parts present or are there missing links?

Only if all parts are available can you attempt a repair yourself. Additionally, it is important to check whether the chain has open links or soldered or welded links. You can see this best under a magnifying glass.

Only open chain links can be repaired by yourself; the others need to be professionally soldered or welded again to ensure the chain holds together well.

For the repair, you will need a sturdy surface, good lighting, preferably a magnifying glass to work under, and 2 pointed flat pliers as well as possibly a round plier.

If the loop is still closed, hold the loop with one pliers and gently bend the loop open a little with the other pliers. Make sure not to make the opening larger, but rather shift the opening backward, away from you.

If the loop is already open due to your chain breaking, first close the loop with round-nose pliers. Then open the loop as described above.

In the next step, you can attach the other part of your chain with the last link and then close the link again. The first pliers should always remain on the link. The second pliers now shifts the opening back to the front, towards you, so the link closes without breaking.

However, only perform this process once, as metal can break from too much movement. Now your chain is reassembled. To make everything shine like new again, it's best to clean your chain using our tips for gold jewelry cleaning and silver jewelry cleaning.

There are many different types of chain clasps. It always depends on which clasp you want to repair. A standard clasp is unfortunately difficult to repair, as it usually contains a steel spring that almost always breaks as well; in that case, you can only buy a new clasp and attach it to the chain.

At Maren Jewellery, we make all our closures ourselves, and they come without steel springs.

For example, if the closure of your item bends under firm tension Milkyway Necklace You can simply bend it back together, and then the chain will hold perfectly again.

Also the closure of the Essential Necklace we have developed especially for you. Here, under strong tension, the rod of the closure could bend, but you can easily straighten it again with pliers.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our closures or if you have a broken closure from another favorite necklace - we are happy to help.

Untangling knotted chains can be a test of patience, but oddly enough, I've always enjoyed untangling chains and making them beautiful and wearable again. For most people, however, untangling is often just a nuisance, so our tip is: work with pins, a pointed tweezers, or metal skewers. This way, you can get into the knots and quickly and easily untangle the chain on a solid surface in front of you.

We care deeply about jewelry, which is why we want you to always wear your pieces with joy.

Our goal is also a circular economy, meaning to reuse things or bring them back into circulation. That’s why we are happy to repair your chains or other jewelry pieces and prepare them for you again.

Check out our standard jewelry service options or contact us with your repair request, preferably with a photo of your jewelry piece - we look forward to it!