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This 'How To'
assumes you are familiar with goldsmithing
techniques and the disciplines there of
Any questions can be sent to
hans@meevis.com
This was a clasp that I designed as I went along, i.e. this
was the first time I had made such a thing.
I had a customer come into my shop and he wanted to have a
stainless steel cable necklace with a rubber tubing on the
outside. He is a yacht racer so it had to be strong.
I made him a silver and gold whistle before and he wanted to
have something to hang it on.
The cord that is pictured was
just temporary.
The catch presented a problem, because I could not use a
'normal store bought' catch and it had to go with the flow
of the piece. Also the machine made catches have steel
springs in them and here in St.Maarten, unless it is
stainless steel, it dies fast.
Anyway, the following is what I made.
First, two sizes of tubing. As
the picture shows, they slide easily into each other. The
wall thickness was about .80 to 1mm. The thicker one was
about 6mm. OD and 4mm ID and the thinner one was about
4mm OD and 2mm ID
First I saw a slit into the
tubing and then I used a 1mm barrel frazer to make two slits
down either side. About 8mm down.
Then about a 1.5 mm up,
starting to form the 'bayonet hook' of the thing.
All this burring is done with a 1mm barrel frazer
The smaller tube I drill a 1mm
hole through and solder a piece of wire into it.
Then to see if it all is
aligned and slides easily in and out, before I cut the next
slit.
Then I cut the next 'upward
slit. This is the locking part, that will be under pressure
from the spring, a few photos down.
I saw the tube off at more
or less the black line.
Like about this long
Then I soldered a jump ring in
the tube. This will be the stop for the stainless steel
spring .
don't worry, the next pictures will make it clear.
This is the jump ring soldered
in and filed and sanded down
Then, in the thinner tubing on the left, I solder a piece of
wire that is the same diameter as the inner diameter of the
previously soldered jump ring.
Like this--apologies for the
kak picture!!!
So that it fits easily in and
out.
So now I solder the piece of
tubing back on that I cut off a few pictures ago. I use the
soldering tweezers pictured not very often, but boy, when
you need them, they are indispensable. It pays well to have
them handy.....
Anyway, to continue..
Okay, so now I got a bit stupid and I got hung-up on the
'smithing part of it and not the smithing and PHOTO as well.
So I have, in the picture below soldered the two pieces of
tubing together.
So anyway, I made one plug,
not two as pictured. One goes in the back of the tubing and
then comes up against the jump ring that was soldered in
earlier where the black line is.
Since this is a cable/ rubber
necklace, the 'bayonet hook' part is soldered onto the
cable. This is stainless steel cable and with an aggressive
flux, solders quite easily to silver with silvers hard
solder. Gold solders also work very well. I use a South
African flux made by Johnson and Matthey called 'Easy Flo' (
figures, doesn't it, they would hardly call it 'difficult
flo', ha ha)
So there is the whole
catastrophe about to be all inserted. The cable part will be
riveted . You can just see the hole at the bottom. The
spring is stainless steel. The previous picture shows the
male part. The tip of the male will press against the plug
that is in front of the spring. (does that
make sense?)
I gave the customer the
necklace to wear for a week, so he can 'road test' it. He is
one of these dudes who knows exactly what he doesn't want!
(grin)
One modification I have thought of, is to solder a jump ring
around the female part, right at the front. It will make the
split tubing much stronger.
There is he and she together
in matrimonial bliss! All that I did after, is to rivet the
rivet sticking out and sand it all smooth and polish....Hope
you enjoyed this post and that all is understood.
Have a look at another type of catch at
Making a
fold-over catch
If you have any questions or wish to be notified of any new tutorials that are posted,
email me at hansmeevis.tutorials@gmail.com
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