How to make a chain of gold with your own hands. How chains are made. How to make a chain of wire with your own hands

Viking knit is an ancient way of chain weaving that does not require soldering links. The chain in this technique is woven from a long piece of wire, which is built up as needed.

The name can be translated into Russian approximately as “Viking knots” or “Viking weaving”. The technique received such a name due to the fact that the first decoration of this kind was found in the burial of the Vikings. But then there were other, more ancient finds, and it is now believed that the technique originally came from the city of Trichipoli in India. I use this chain for antique jewelry.

In order to weave a chain with your own hands, you need to stock up:

• thin wire (I use copper)
• pencil
• scissors
• ruler

Weaving a chain with your own hands

First we need to prepare the base on which the very beginning of weaving will lie. To do this, cut off a piece of wire about 40 cm and wrap it around the ruler 6 times.

We remove from the ruler, fix the loops, wrapping the free end of the wire around them.

We open the loops into a “flower”, carefully so as not to wrinkle.

We bend this "flower" around the pencil. We cut off another piece of wire, about 70 cm long, and start weaving. Leave a small free end and make a loop around one of the "petals".

We make the second loop, stepping back one "petal" to the right. Similarly, we continue from top to bottom.

We make 4 more loops, and return again to the first "petal". Now you need to go to the next row, for this we make the next loop, catching on the first loop of the previous row.

We continue to loop, each time clinging to the loops in the previous row, until the tip is about 10–12 cm long.

Now you need to build up the end of the wire so that you can weave further. We cut off another piece and wind it under one of the vertical rows of loops.

When we reach this place by weaving, we grab a new wire along with the loop of the previous row, so it will be fixed. We pass another circle, and again we get to the place where the new wire sticks out. The most crucial moment: the new wire must be brought up to the left of the loop, and hooked with the old wire to the right of the loop and taken down.

Take a closer look at the photo, it's not that difficult. Here's what it looks like when tightened up.

We grab the old wire on the next few circles together with the loop of the previous row to fix it, and then cut it off.

Thus, we continue weaving. When it seems enough, remove from the pencil.

And now - focus! Gently, grabbing the ends with your fingers, we stretch the weaving, and it is transformed.

To calculate the length of the finished chain, you just need to remember that it stretches about twice.
That's all, the chain is ready. You can detach it from the auxiliary loops and use it at your discretion.

The first gold chains appeared in Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece. Gold chains symbolized wealth, power, nobility or divine origin.

Pure gold is too soft, its bright yellow color is not always liked by the consumer. Therefore, to ensure strength and the desired color, other metals, called alloys, are added to gold.

Silver gives gold a noble pale hue, copper a reddish tone, and brass allows metals to melt faster than if gold and copper were melted separately. Depending on the amount of ligature added, a gold alloy of 14-18 carats is obtained.

The mixture is melted at a temperature of 1010°C. To make 5,000 14-karat chains, it is enough to melt three scoops of components.

The gold alloy after melting is poured from the casting machine into a water-cooled mold. Water cools the metal to a temperature of 370°C, and it solidifies. The precious metal is pressed into a round mold, giving it the shape of a rod, 2 meters long.

After cutting the gold rod in half, it is passed through the so-called "rolling mill". It changes the bar section from round to, for example, square, right size. So the rod is easier to stretch.

The rod is then passed through a rolling mill. Twelve rollers of the rolling mill pull the rod into the thickness of the spaghetti. At the exit, the rollers roll the gold rod into a spiral 24 meters long. This spiral is sent to the furnace to soften the metal.

After that, the golden spiral is unrolled and pulled to the state of a wire, pulling it through a mill with dies from industrial diamonds. To prevent overheating, gold is poured with a liquid lubricant. The precious metal comes out of the mill in the form of thin gold wire.

The wire is wound on a spool, on which 3 km of wire is placed. Thirty-two, in this case, coils of gold wire are unwound and placed in a furnace, where the gold softens even more.

One of the machines makes chains with the so-called anchor weaving - it passes the wire through the link and connects the ends, making a new link. The machine connects six hundred links per minute. The quality check of the gold chain is performed in random order.

Another machine performs "Venetian weaving". The gold wire is passed into the channel, where mechanical clamps bend around it around the mold, connecting it to the previous link.

To create a "spider" weave, the machine passes the gold wire through five links at once. The next loom does tegaro weaving - first, the machine makes three short links, which it twists and clamps in sequence, after which the manipulator moves the gold links to another loom, where it adds one long link to them. The manipulator then carries the gold links back, where it adds three more short links.

The simplest "rope weaving" is obtained by passing gold wire through two links and closing it.

Finished gold chains are powder coated to prevent sticking in the next manufacturing step, where they are heated to 815°C. Heat activates the soldering agent added during the melting of the metal, it solders the ends of the links.

Then the machine welds the locks to the ends of the chain. Finally, the chains are successively soaked in four containers with chemicals that cleanse any contamination. After that, they are electrolytically coated with a thin layer of gold, which gives them more brilliance.

After checking the quality, a tag indicating the sample is attached to the lock, and the chains are ready to be sent to the jewelry store to decorate you.

Nizhny Novgorod is home to the Russian chain factory Red Anchor, which was founded in 1898 due to an increase in demand for ship chains. But the plant did not stop at ship chains, and now they produce chains for various purposes: from tire protection to components for mining equipment.

Now the plant is divided into three main workshops: large chains, medium and small ones. The process and stages of manufacturing products are approximately the same, but what larger size chain, the longer and larger it looks. Let's start with the medium chain shop. The peculiarity of medium sizes is that the machines do everything themselves, but the products must be transported manually from machine to machine.

The first step in making a chain is to feed the material into the machine, where a piece of the desired length is cut and bent to form a link, and then connected to another link.

At the second stage, the gap is welded. Without this, the chain links under load can simply be disconnected. The third step is verification, i.e. the chain is loaded onto the machine, which tensions it according to allowable weight. If one of the links does not withstand, then this very link is unclenched, removed, a new one is added and boiled again. Then back to check.

After a successful check, the chain is sent for heat treatment in the oven. This stage gives even more strength to the product.

Then comes the workshop of large chains. The main application of such chains is in ships and mines. In comparison with the average, the labor of workers is used here in large volumes.
The so-called "carousel". An old machine, but the first two stages take place on it at once. For its functioning, four workers are needed, each of which performs his part.

When the work is going on, in the center of the “carousel” such piles of several hundred kilograms are formed.

Some chains, immediately after connecting the links and welding, are sent by means of a crane to this tank, which begins to vibrate and rotate. Thus, there is a smoothing of the elements.

At Red Anchor, they are slowly trying to update the machines, because some are already 60-40 years old, but the prices of new ones are measured in millions of euros - this makes a quick replacement a little difficult. The photo shows an automatic “carousel” from the German company ESAB. It is fully automated and the worker simply controls the process.

The 1990 machine is considered fairly new.

Such long ribbon used for mine products. The fact is that this chain has a clearly defined length, the error of which allows only 2 millimeters.

100 year old press.

This is a horizontal hydraulic press, it is he who tests the strength of large chains. By the way, it is also very old.

And into the oven for heat treatment! Medium chains are transported on trolleys, but here only by lifts.

We are moving to the shop of small chains. Its peculiarity is that almost everything is done automatically. And this is achieved by completely new equipment.

For example, due to the low weight of the products, the first two stages pass in a continuous chain, and the worker simply controls and corrects the process.

The source material is supplied, and at the output it remains only to send it to the furnace.

The size of the process does not change, only the speed and scale of production.

But there are still places in the factory where you need to manually connect the chain links. This young guy is doing just that. By the way, there are almost no old employees at the plant. Most are under 40 years old. There is also an educational department that accepts children after educational institutions.

For every taste and color.

New equipment is being installed. When I was there, almost every workshop had several new machines assembled or standing.

In addition to shops with chains, there is also a forging and pressing shop, which deals with various additional products or fasteners.

Everything is simple here. We heat the workpiece, under the press we make the desired shape, and then cut off the extra pieces. The photo shows an inefficient oven, because. a lot of heat is simply lost, so there is a newer one in the shop, but this one is still in use.

Year of issue 1912. Working.

Actually here. The new furnace heats up, and the worker gives it the desired shape.

Another section of the forging and pressing shop. Because of the very old equipment, they rarely work here. At one time, one man was the boss here, who hung out photographs of the best workers on poles, there was his own alley of “best people”.

Also, the plant has a completely new workshop, where only fresh machines. Basically, all sorts of blanks are cut here.

After a walk around the production, we stopped by the director, who turned out to be “one of us”. Showed us a book found in the archives. It is relevant for 1918

A separate huge building is reserved for the warehouse.

Gold chains are beautiful jewelry which is suitable not only for women, but also for men. Learning how to make a gold chain with your own hands is a great idea for a craftsman who is into jewelry. A gold chain is a luxurious decoration that attracts the eyes of people around, and for a jeweler, chains represent a wide scope for the realization of fantasies and creativity.

It often happens that the chain breaks easily, although it does not look so fragile. It is impossible to even imagine that this chain can support the weight of the kettlebell. Why does this happen? In this article, we will try to understand and answer this question. To begin with, in general terms, we will analyze all the stages of making gold chains.

The jeweler takes a small ingot of pure gold, which was obtained after refining. Separates the right amount and mixes it with the ligature. This is done so that the gold chain is strong and durable. To obtain the necessary alloy for the manufacture of the chain, you need to take 5.85 grams of pure gold, 2.92 grams of copper and 1.22 grams of silver.

We fuse all these metals in a crucible, sprinkling with borax, and be sure to stir. The melting point is about 950 degrees. After hardening, the red-hot piece of metal is cooled in water and boiled in bleach. As a result, we get 10 grams of 585 gold alloy, which indicates the percentage of gold in the product.

The higher the sample, the greater the content of pure gold, but the alloy is much softer. Impurities of other metals give gold not only hardness and strength, but also change its color. By replacing the ratio of metals that are part of the ligature, the necessary color is selected for the future decoration.

To make a chain, we pour gold into a mold and get a gold rod with a thickness of about 5 mm. In order to make a chain out of it, it is now necessary to burn it and stretch it to the state of a wire of the desired diameter, which depends on the mass of the future product.

To do this, it is necessary to pass our rod first through the rollers, from a larger stream to a smaller one, and then through a die. It is very important not to confuse the size of the strand when rolling on rollers, because if you put a golden rod into a smaller strand, cracks will appear, and as a result, when pulled in dies, the wire will break and the future product will turn out Low quality. When working with spinnerets, it is necessary to lubricate the wire with the wax of an ordinary candle.

After the completion of the stage of manufacturing the gold wire, the process of weaving the chain itself begins. First of all, the resulting gold wire is twisted into a spiral of the required diameter, then from the spiral, using special scissors, we cut the links for the future chain. The resulting links are weaved into a chain of the desired length, and soldered with solder. The next step is polishing and installing the lock.

Soldering thin chains

What about thin chains? After all, small links cannot be soldered by hand. What to do in this case? Usually, thin chains are produced on special machines, at large jewelry factories and plants. To solder the links, the chains are coated with a special powder, which is a mixture of solder and flux.

This powder envelops the junction of each link, then the chains enter the muffle furnace at a temperature of 500-600 degrees. At this temperature, the gold itself simply heats up while the solder melts, joining the joints. The chain is now solid and ready for further processing.

The strength of the soldered links can be checked. If everything was done correctly, all links of the chain are soldered, and the thickness of the wire is the same everywhere, then such a chain should withstand a weight exceeding its own by 750 times. Next comes the grinding process, after which the chains are cut to the desired length and the clasp is attached.

The finished chain becomes less strong, as it has a weak link - a fastener. It is deliberately made weaker, as a measure of protection in case you catch the chain on something or someone wants to rip it off.

Soldering chain links is much more convenient if the solder is in the form of small plates. To do this, before soldering, we roll it out on rollers and cut it into small squares. In the process of soldering, we first heat the more massive part of the product, but you can not overheat it, as it can fuse.

It is necessary to catch the moment when the solder should be applied. Before soldering, heated parts are coated with flux and borax. If everything is done, right, and the soldering points are warm enough, then the soldering point itself will be covered with a flux film. However, the soldering process does not end there.

It is necessary to carefully heat the place of soldering with the flame of the burner so as not to melt the parts. This should be done until the cadmium contained in the solder burns out. You can determine whether the cadmium has burned out or not as follows: you need to carefully look at the place of soldering, which should be dull, the same as the soldered parts.

In fact, from two separate parts, a monolith is obtained, having the same composition, color and physical properties. This completes the soldering process, and you can proceed to further steps.

At all times, not excluding modernity, one of the most popular products among the ornaments was a chain. Almost every person has it and not in one copy. Jewelry is made different ways both manually and on the machine. In this article, we will look at how to weave a chain with our own hands and what types are feasible for a novice master.

Types of weaving

The difference from the female one is the nature of the interlacing of the links of this decoration. Style, originality, ease of execution, weight also play a role.

Chain winding is divided into several groups, depending on the method of layout and ligament of links. The main methods of weaving are: shell and anchor, as well as individual types, such as bismarck and perlin.

diamond shape

The armored type of weaving has polished links located in the same plane. Linked loops are rhombic in shape and can be connected with one, two or even three links at the same time. There are various combinations of armor weaving. For example, small links are woven into large ones or sequentially alternate with each other. The first type is called "Nonna", the second - "Figaro". Another weaving method, which can have a square, oval and round section, is called "Snake" or "Cobra". Indeed, the cord appearance resembles the shell of a snake and is slightly curved. Rope also refers to the armored species. During the connection of the links, the chain scrolls slightly in a certain direction, resembling a rope in appearance.

sea ​​anchor

With the anchor method, the connected links interlock with each other at an angle of 90 0. The loops of a classic chain are oval in shape. This is the easiest weaving method that you can use to make a chain with your own hands. If a crossbar is located between the links, then the weaving is called the “Sea Anchor”. There is a coupling of not only narrow, but also wide rings - rollo or chopard. Venetian weaving differs from classical weaving in links that can take the form of a square or rectangle. One block can contain several elements.

Weaving method "link to link"

To make a chain with your own hands using this method, you need to prepare the links desired shape. The main parameter for any weaving is the correspondence of the diameters of the rings and wire. The thinner the material and the wider the link, the more unreliable the chain becomes. The opposite option creates difficulties in weaving. Rings are made by winding wire around a deadbolt, so it should not be too small either.

Alternately threaded loops into each other should have one direction. You can solder the ends of the loops both during weaving and after it. When heated, the melting metal should fill the gap at the bite site. In this way, a possible chain break will be eliminated, and the rings will be continuous.

Weaving a chain "double rhombus"

This type of clutch has flat loops shaped like a rhombus or an elongated square. Weaving is considered quite durable and popular. The links can be connected alternately, as well as in groups of two or three things together. Women's chains, as a rule, have a flat shape. Men, in turn, prefer massive products with double or triple weave.

Prepared links stretch, bend and squeeze, achieving the desired shape. Then weave a chain, inserting the next loop into the previous one. There is a hitch option in which the third link is threaded into the first and passed through the second, then the fourth is threaded into the second and pulled through the third, and so on. After soldering the loops, the finished chain is flattened using rollers. At the end of the work, the chain woven with your own hands must be sanded.

Bismarck chain weaving technology

The main tools for making jewelry are various crossbars, a vice, pliers, files and additional materials. At home, for weaving a chain around the neck, knitting needles or any other knitting needles, for example, from an umbrella or a bicycle wheel, can serve as crossbars. A wire is wound around it, forming a spiral. One end must be bent in two places, forming a handle, on the other, make a cut to fix the wire.

Next, the spiral must be cut into links so that each loop contains two turns. Then, with the help of pliers, the second is screwed into one element until a characteristic click. Thus, the product is extended to the required length. While weaving the chain, two turns of each link must be compressed to fix.

Solder is needed to solder the hinges. It is an alloy of various metals in the form of thin plates or wire. Before soldering, you need to take a small piece of solder and melt it with a burner flame. Then move the ball with a soldering iron to the joint of the link, which also needs to be heated, and let it spread. Repeat the procedure with the rest of the loops. In the last step, the chain is leveled by pulling it through the rollers.

Weaving chains with your own hands

The product, woven using the "Viking Knit" method, is made of soft wire and does not require soldering. When weaving a chain around the neck, the material used is built up.

Before work, you need to prepare a pencil that will serve as a support, thin copper wire, scissors and ruler. Weaving begins with the preparation of the base for the chain. Cut about 40 cm of copper thread and wrap it around the ruler, making 6 turns. Remove the resulting loops from the tool and fix them by wrapping them with the short end of the wire. Spread the petals in different directions and place on the blunt side of the pencil, bending them along the support. Start weaving with a new piece of copper thread 80 cm long. Make a loop by threading the wire through one of the warp petals. Then, turning the pencil, insert the upper end of the thread inside the next petal, bringing it out from the left side. In this way, tie the loops around the entire base.

A new row begins with the girth of the loop of the previous round. Further weaving continues similarly until the working wire runs out. Twist the tip of the new piece of thread with the previous residue and continue weaving to the required length. Subsequently, this tip will hide in the work. Please note that at the end of the work the chain must be stretched. Its length will almost double.

In the ways discussed above, both male and female chains can be woven. By learning how to make jewelry, you will get a good experience with metal and master the basic skills of jewelry making.