Safety chains

[Polli]

I am concerned about using a safety chain with a magnetic clasp on a bracelet.  Can you suggest which of your finer silver-plated chains will least be attracted to a magnet?

Thanks in advance!

[RitaD]

Hi Polli,

Any of the chains that are plated over brass should be fine. 

Personally, I think 40-099-13-3, 40-099-08-3 and 40-099-16-3 are your best bets.

You will want to avoid any of the steel based chains.

This link should be all the brass based styles of footage chain that we carry in silver plate.
http://shop.rings-things.com/cart/pc/showsearchresultsCustom.asp?VA=1&ProdSort=&PageStyle=m&customfield=0&SearchValues=&exact=0&keyword=bulk%20chain%20brass%20silver%20plate&priceFrom=0&priceUntil=9999999&idCategory=0&IdSupplier=0&withStock=&IDBrand=0&order=3&SKU=

[Russ Nobbs]

That's a very good concern or question you bring up, Polli.

A magnetic clasp would not work as expected if the chain was attracted to a magnet. Typically iron and steel are the most common materials attracted to a magnet. Sometimes a heavy nickel plate will create a slight (weak) attraction on a chain. Sometimes nickel plate is used on copper or brass before the final gold plate. These are the type of small but critical details that are not obvious but must be considered when designing jewelry or selecting supplies.

[Polli]

Follow-up:
I ordered the 40-099-13-3 chain, but found it sticks to the magnet.  So does the  40-099-08-3 (I already had that one). 

I'm wondering now about the 40-099-16-3 chain.  Is there a chance someone there could test it for me before I order?  I'm also wondering about using sterling, like 40-593.  But is it soldered?  I tried using a sterling half rolo chain on my next attempt, but the chain is not soldered and fell apart in no time!

I love the idea of a safety chain with magnet clasps, but just can't find the right chain!  Help!

[Russ Nobbs]

Joe has been checking our brass chains.  (Thanks, Joe!)

Some of our brass chains are slightly attracted to a magnet. It appears that this is because of the under-plating of nickel as a barrier before the final finish is applied, but only on particular colors.

What Joe  finds is quite interesting.
"The antique copper and antique brass do not have magnetic attraction.  Only white, silver plate, gold plate and gunmetal (black nickel)."
He also noticed "Oddly it seems like the smaller the brass chain the more likely it has some very slight magnetic attraction. Is that because there is more concentrated plating between links???"

I'm left with some more questions for you, Polli:
Is the slight attraction of the fine chain enough to interfere with the working of the mag clasp so it will not work as a safety chain?
Would the safety chain get caught in the mag clasp so it would not clasp?
Would it interfere with taking the bracelet off after the clasp was undone?

You also asked about the sterling #40-593 fine drawn cable chain. I think this is soldered links but our OLS omits this small critical detail. We'll check on that, too.

While Joe was checking actual stock I looked up some more info on magnetic materials and nickel used in plating.
==begin quote===
The main ferromagnetic metals are iron, nickel, and cobalt. The uncommon element gadolinium is magnetic. These form alloys that are also magnetic, such as steel. The rare-earth elements neodymium and samarium can also form magnetic alloys, and neodymium magnets are among the most powerful of permanent magnets.

*The element titanium is not ferromagnetic. It is paramagnetic, in that it interacts weakly with a magnetic field. Copper ions in solution also demonstrate paramagnetism.

*The elements silver, mercury, and gold can display diamagnetism, being slightly repelled by a strong magnetic field. Compounds of these elements can display very weak magnetic interactions. They will not display magnetic properties, but become increasingly affected at very low temperatures.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_all_the_magnetic_metals#ixzz1B87kNnZR
==end quote====

At http://www.finishing.com/148/17.shtml I found this question and answer: "While it's possible to gold plate copper, it is most common to nickel plate it first anyway. Any reason you can't?"

"Agree, Nickel first before gold is the way to go if your application can handle a magnetic material under the Gold.

If not and you have to plate the gold directly on the BeCu, then you first must prepare the BeCu surface and the only good way to do that is after a standard cleaning process, add a 1 Oz/Gal Cyanide soak for 2 - 3 minutes lukewarm then go live directly into a Gold Strike. One of the 1-3 ASF Acid-Cyanide full DC varieties will work fine. But since Gold suffers diffusion and you have no (Nickel)barrier, if you want to get rid of the staining, you will need lay the Gold down thick, over 400 Microinches. That's a lot of Gold. Which is why a cheap layer of Nickel is usually used."

 Copper (or Beryllium copper alloy here) and brass (copper/zinc alloy) are very similar in their properties. This reinforces the idea that nickel plating is very common as an underplating.

Keep these good questions coming, Polli. We try to know a lot about our products but there are always questions that have never come up before.

[Polli]

Wow, Russ, I love that you and your staff are so available to help with my nit-picky questions!     I always like to understand the why's and how's in what I'm doing, to help do it better!  I've never seen another seller that makes such an effort to inform their customers!  Thank you!

The answers to your questions is, no the chain didn't prevent the clasp from closing, it wasn't attracted immediately to the clasp.  But when I wore it, it bunched up around the clasp and held on all day.  Functionally, that's really not a problem.  But as appearance goes, it looked messy and unprofessional.  To be honest, one of the things I like about safety chains is that little dangle of chain, to me it feels feminine and dainty.  Doesn't work when it's bunched up. 

I usually use plated chains and materials to save cost and keep the final price affordable.  But 2 to 3 inches of a fine sterling chain won't add appreciably to the price, so I'm thinking of going that direction.  The chain I tried before and thought was unsoldered apparently just had a weak link, I can't get the rest to break at all!  So I'll try it again!

Thanks to Joe for his efforts (I'm interested to see if the sterling chain is soldered) and to you for taking the time to reply so thoroughly!