Can You Just Replace The Clasp?

Can You Just Replace The Clasp? This is such a common question… You have a great pearl or beaded necklace and you do not want to pay for the entire necklace to be restrung but you have a broken clasp. Is it possible to just replace the clasp without restringing the entire necklace? Great question! Yesterday I got this email from Lena:

India,
About a year ago, your Pearl Girls restrung the strand of faux pearls. Beautiful! But the antique clasp has broken.

1) Would it be possible to remove the simple gold-filled clasp on the baby pearls I purchased from you and put on my faux strand.

2) Then could you add a clasp to the baby pearls?

3) Can you remove the simple silver clasp on the dark pearls and replace with the round filigree that you use??

I don’t want to get into any restringing. Also, if this is possible, please provide the costs per item.

Many thanks,

L.

Dear Lena!

It is so great to hear from you! There are two different ways to string a necklace. One way is to attach the silk thread directly to the clasp. Another way is to attach the thread to a small metal ring (called a jump ring) that then attaches to a clasp. If the thread is attached directly to the clasp,  it is impossible to replace the clasp without restringing the entire necklace. You can see that this is how your necklaces appear to be created. The dark pearls might have a jump ring on it. If so, we can replace the clasp on it.

Our reknot policy is that we restring or reknot your necklaces the same way you send them to us, unless you specify otherwise. Truthfully, to add a small jump ring creates a heavier “metal” look which can be perceived as bulkier or without the clean lines of a necklace attached directly to the clasp. If you send us a necklace with those same clean lines, we replicate it for you.

With our new pieces, I have made the decision to add the small metal ring. You can see it in this image of our pearl necklace/clasp. The jump ring on the right side of the clasp is a little more noticeable than the ring on the left side of the clasp, which is slightly hidden beneath the clasp. Again, this makes for a stronger “metal” look and affects the aesthetic but it makes it more practical when you want to change out a clasp. It is possible to simply cut the jump ring, slide the clasp out and put in a new clasp on the jump ring.

When is it not practical to replace the clasp on our design? When you want to change from a silver clasp to a gold clasp. Do you see the tight silver coil right up against the pearl? That is called french wire. Any well strung necklace will have french wire because you never attach silk directly to metal. What we do when we finish a necklace is we loop the thread through a wire coil and attach this to the metal ring. So, metal is always touching metal, not thread on metal. If you want to change out the clasp to a different metal, it is impossible to change out the french wire. And it is pretty tough to actually change out the small silver ring, too. So, again changing the clasp from silver to gold would also require a total restringing of the necklace.

Wish I had better news about changing your clasps around! Let me know if you want to replace the clasp on the dark pearl necklace with our filigree clasp! Also, something else to think about… it appears that we simply restrung your baby pearl necklaces – without knots. Restringing a necklace without knotting it is more affordable… only $1.50 per inch. So, your investment would be less! Thanks for reaching out to us to do more work on your pearl necklaces. I hope you are fantastic!

Best,

India

India Rows

I am a modern day treasure hunter who travels the world for gorgeous pearls and amazing adventures. I own a pearl jewelry and jewelry repair business, ThePearlGirls.com, with a cute retail store in Athens, GA. I also have a Pearl Travel business and travel blog at TheWorldofPearl.com.