Shiney Lounge

The hard crimp/soft crimp debate – Which one and when?

Hard crimps, soft crimps I hear you say; some of us didn’t even know they came in different types of metal and were had different uses.  This hard crimp/soft crimp thing is something we discovered some years ago and I’m sorry to say it was discovered due to necklaces falling apart (a very long time ago I hasten to add;-))!

If you have ever used a calotte finishing (clamshell, necklace end, whatever you want to call it) and like me, you don’t really like working with glue or knotting things unnecessarily; all you want a finding to do the job, stay closed, keep the wire in place etc, without sticking your finger to your lip LOL. Well, here’s how the soft crimp/hard crimp business was discovered: I made some lovely bridal jewellery for a lady and ‘you can cringe now’ one of the bridesmaids necklaces, literally slipped into her soup as she sat at the top table with the bride!  Obviously, I could do nothing at the time, but I refunded the lady her money and repaired the necklace for her, apologising profusely for such an awful thing to happen on her wedding day.

After this, I was determined to find a solution to this poor finishing. I wanted to use calottes but needed to know the necklace would stay together. Then totally by accident, when rummaging through my findings stash, I noticed I had two different types of crimps from different suppliers (this was before the days of Shiney Rocks); one seemed dull and hard to squash and the other shiny and soft. I squashed the shiny one on some flexible nylon coated jewellery wire and closed my calotte. After a big tug on the end to see what would happen, it came straight off. I then squashed the hard crimp, it required more pressure, but I squashed it with the snipe nose pliers, putting the crimp far down into the jaws so there was maximum force and then closed the calotte and tugged at it! Magic – it didn’t move.

This was the light bulb moment in discovering hard and soft crimps, but it gets better… I then discovered that hard crimps don’t work with the crimping tool. It just seems to mangle the crimp. However, soft crimps are just perfect, they round off just as they are supposed to, looking neat and professional.

So in summary, hard crimps and perfect for your finishings and if squashed firmly will keep those necklaces together. Obviously a small child swinging from your neck won’t work, that’s when you need hard crimps, wire guardians and crimp covers with split rings, but that’s another blog post click here. Use soft crimps for bead stopper and for use with the crimping tool.

Hope this helps. Any questions just post a comment. Thanks for reading.

Products mentioned in this post:

Tools
Snipe Nose Pliers
Crimping Pliers

Silver Plated Jewellery Findings
Hard Crimps Silver Plated
Soft Crimps Silver Plated
Wholesale Pack of Silver Plated Soft Crimps
4mm Silver Plated Crimp Cover
Calotte Silver Plated
Wholesale Quantity of Silver Plated Calottes
Silver Plated Split Rings
Silver Plated Wire Guardian

Gold Plated Jewellery Findings
Hard Crimps Gold Plated
Soft Crimps Gold Plated
Wholesale Pack of Gold Plated Soft Crimps
Wire Guardian Gold Plated
Calottes Gold Plated
Wholesale Quantity of Gold Plated Calottes