Sterling Silver Cable Chain

A cable chain is built from identical links, each set at ninety degrees to the one before it. It is the most structurally predictable chain there is: every link is the same closed ring, so a jeweller can shorten it, lengthen it or replace a damaged link anywhere along its run without interrupting the pattern.

Because the links alternate in plane, a cable chain lies flat, resists kinking and carries a pendant bail squarely rather than letting it roll to one side.

This is the only gauge we carry in this style.

Lengths run from 40 to 55 cm. 40 cm sits at the base of the throat; 45 cm sits on the collarbone and is the most common pendant length; 50 cm sits just below the collarbone and clears a crew neckline; 55 cm sits at the top of the sternum.

Specification

• Metal: sterling silver (925)
• Style: Cable chain
• Lengths available: 40cm, 45cm, 50cm, 55cm
• Finish: Polished
• Supplier reference: CA30
• Sold as: Single piece

Sterling silver is 925 parts per thousand fine silver, the balance copper. The copper is what makes it workable — fine silver on its own is too soft to hold a form — and it is also why sterling tarnishes: the copper reacts with sulphur in the air. Tarnish is a surface film, not corrosion. It polishes off with a silver cloth and the metal beneath is unchanged.

Servicing. Uniform links make this one of the simplest chains to alter or repair. Store silver closed — a box or a zip bag — when it is not being worn. Tarnish is driven by air rather than by wear, so the pieces that sit in the open are the ones that darken first.