QuestionMy mother in-law was given a stainless steel necklace with a cross for her confirmation from her mother. My wife broke said cross when she was a child and lost one of the pieces. The vertical beam of the cross is still there, attached to the necklace, but the horizontal beam is the piece that was lost. For a Christmas present, my wife would like to replace the missing piece and give it back to her mother. I haven't been able to find a repair shop that will work with stainless steel. All of them suggest using a piece of sterling silver instead, but I know that it won't look the same. Do you know of repair shops offering this type of service? I would imagine you would need to weld a new piece of stainless steel on. Thanks!
AnswerJustin you have pretty well figured out the problems of this repair but maybe I can help. I will give it a try with no guarantee, of course. : )
You are correct about jewelers not wanting to work with stainless steel, or carbon steel, or aluminum or several other metals not suited to joining with torch and silver, gold and platinum solders. Proper joining of stainless steel is best done with a cover gas, typically argon flowed over the area of work to prevent oxidation of the metal while welded. I have been able to flow gold solder on stainless in a very small area using special paste flux to assist in keeping the metal clean but the joints are not pretty and likely not strong.
Welding is the best method. Jewelers are not welders and do not have TIG or MIG welders or any use for these for that matter. However, some jewelry shops do have the capability to weld on small items using either jewelry lasers or jewelry arc welders. You can see these tools at the web sites below. Considering the expense of these machines, most jewelers do not have this equipment. It can be hard to justify the prices spent on equipment unless the jeweler is fairly sure of a solid return on the investment.
I have joined stainless steel in small areas with a jewelry laser. The laser uses the intense and hot light of a laser to melt a very small spot of the metal with each pulse of the laser. The spot may be smaller than the periods in this text. A cover gas is needed for the best results and the machines are designed to have argon feed to the work areas. I did mine with a new machine and the cover gas was not yet installed.
Jewelry Lasers
http://www.laserstar.net/welding_products-industrial.html
Pulse Arc Welders
http://www.orionjewelrywelders.com/?gclid=CJTimY7bzJ0CFR9N5QodyRdpyQ
If you find the rare jeweler with one of these machines, they can likely do the job. In some work I am not pleased with the look of the welds but that is likely from lack of experience by myself and by those locally who use the machines to repair jewelry. I have not seen any stainless steel repaired other than what I have experimented but it can certainly be done.
SUGGESTION
Don't require the jeweler to do the entire job because most cannot do it for good reasons. Do give the jeweler a chance to do the finishing work, work which takes more time than precious metals but work a jeweler can do in a normal shop. How to do this?
You will need to find someone with a welder likely far from the jewelry field to do the weld of the cross bar. You may have to find and supply the steel for the bar. If you can find someone to tack weld the bar that would be better since this is a delicate job possibly too delicate for the everyday welder of tractor parts and similar repairs.
If anyone works at a machine shop with the capability of doing fine welding perhaps they can put the bar on for you.
Once welded, a jeweler can finish the cross with sanding, abrasives and polishes as needed.
Justin, I hope these suggestions will help in some way. God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
