Chain

Gold chain is both one of the oldest and one of the most popular forms of jewellery. It is also made in a multiplicity of styles; well over two hundred varieties are available. The names of these may reflect their appearance (foxtail, snake, barleycorn), their geographical origin (Byzantine, Venetian, Madeira, Russian), their historical origin (curb chain, named after the German panzerhemd or coat of mail), historical persons (Garibaldi), or a technical analogy (cable chain, which looks like an anchor chain).


Chain making at Uno-a-Erre's
factory in Arezzo, Italy
(Credit: courtesy Uno-a-Erre)

But in technical terms chains are classified in seven broad groups: cable; chain types derived from cable; curb; other wire chains; pressed chains; chains made from turned parts; and fancy chains. Most chain is now made automatically by machine but the tradition of handmade chain continues where it is impractical by machine or the quantities are small, as with such picturesque styles as snail’s shell and fishbone chain.

The ease with which ductile gold could be drawn into wires by early craftsmen ensured that chains, often originally a special mark of authority, were among the first jewellery fabricated. Archaeologists excavating the city of Ur, dating from 2500 BC, found foxtail chains resembling plaits of gold wire that foreshadow a type of chain still made today.

The first description of chain-making came in 1122 from Theophilus, who recommended using a board of oak or beech wood drilled with holes made by a red hot iron spike through which the chain could be drawn to the desired diameter and shape and then wound on a spindle.


Hand finishing at Uno-a-Erre's,
Italy's largest maker of chain
(Credit: courtesy Uno-a-Erre)

The first machines for making chain were developed in the nineteenth century, and by 1920 both foxtail and snake chain were machine made; the first fully automatic machines were introduced during the 1930s. Italy now has the reputation for making low-cost machine-made chain in great quantity at factories such as Balestra, Filk, Silmar, Technigold and Uno-a-Erre, each with several hundred chain machines. But much of the pioneering work on chain manufacture was done at Pforzheim, the capital of jewellery making in Germany, at Birmingham in England and at Attleboro, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island in the United States.

Italian design flair, expertise in improving and maintaining the machines and low labour costs have meant, however, that Italy produces more machine-made chain than any other country.

Chain -making has spread to Latin America and south-east Asia and Japan where a distinctive local variety of 18 carat curb chain known as kihei accounts for nearly one-third of all jewellery fabrication. Japan has over forty companies producing chain.

Chain is made from wires or tapes of carat gold alloy, which may be either solid or hollow to reduce weight. For hollow chain, a carat gold shell is sometimes formed around a core of aluminium or soft iron wire to provide the necessary strength for manufacture, after which the internal wire is dissolved out chemically.

Machine-made chain may also be made from wires that have a core of carat gold solder to aid the closing of the links by soldering. The links of chain from solid wires are frequently soldered with copper/silver powders, usually in a controlled atmosphere conveyor furnace. The joining of links by laser, gas plasma microtorch or electric discharge welding on-line during chain-making is also finding increasing application.