Choosing the Right Chain for Heavy Meditation Necklaces: Sterling Silver Strength

Question
Dear Mr.Potter,
I am making a Mala, a 108 bead meditation neckless that I will run through my fingers in much the same way a rosery is used.  I am using 12mm stone beads, so the neckless is rather heavy, over half a pound.  It is now strung on .5mm sterling silver triple chain, which is three tiny simple link chains working together.  The weight has already deformed the links, which isn't a problem, but I feel it will break with more use.

The size of the holes in the beads are as small as 1mm

I found a site
http://www.metalliferous.com/
pg 57 in silver catalogue
that carries .92mm Foxtail and am wondering if, as it seems to be a much denser chain than the link kind, that it might be sugnificantly stronger than any other silver alturnative.  I could opt for accuflex stainless, but I wanted to keep it all metal and stone, and I am attracted enough to silver to legally change my name to Argenteus, yes that is my real name above.  Furthermore, the energetics are important, so the plastic coating on the 49 strand accuflex would not be good.  Any ideas?
Is .92mm Foxtail stronger than the .98mm Wheat?Or is the 1mm snake stronger than both?

thank you,
Gyrefalcon

Answer
Hello Gyrefalcon, in most cases of stringing I have always reccomended that the stringer use a material substance such as silk or nylon to string the article. Certainly if you use a "foxtail" or "wheat" style of chain in silver, you will run a considerable risk of breakage.

As it appears important that you use silver may I suggest a wholly unique method. Try and  source some very thin silver wire, by thin, I mean very thin, perhaps .015mm. I suggest that you set up a clamp and begin to create a hemp string from the silver wire. The method for platting is very common and can be found in millinery literature.

The strength of your wire will come from the platting,their are no single links, the method has an excellent geodesic property which spreads the workload more evenly and will withstand much use, keep the platting farily tight and it should last you.

Good luck