Chain types explained: curb, cable, snake, box, rope and which ones break

The chain is the part of a necklace people look at last and the part that fails first. It is also the part a photograph tells you least about, because at the size a product image is displayed, a cable chain and a rope chain look identical. Construction decides whether a chain lies flat, whether it kinks, whether it can be repaired and whether it will hold a heavy pendant for a year. Here are the six you will actually meet, in rough order of how robust they are, and what each one is for.

Cable, the default

A cable chain is a row of identical oval or round links, each at right angles to its neighbours. It is the most common chain in the world and the plainest. Nothing about it is clever, which is its advantage.

It is repairable by any jeweller, because a broken link can be opened, replaced and soldered without matching anything unusual. It will not kink. It does not twist much. At a fine gauge it will tangle when it is loose in a bag, like everything else fine.

Its weakness is that an individual link can pull open under a sudden snag if the wire is thin and the link is not soldered closed. Hold a short length up to a light: if you can see a seam where each link meets, those links are unsoldered and the chain will open at the weakest one. Soldered links show no join.

Curb, and why it lies flat

A curb chain is a cable chain whose links have been twisted and then flattened so they sit in one plane. That is the whole difference, and it is why a curb chain lies flat against skin instead of rolling, and why it does not want to flip over and show you its edge.

Flattening makes each link stiffer, so curb is one of the stronger constructions at a given weight. It is a good choice under anything with real mass. It is also the chain most likely to catch long hair, because the flattened faces form small ridges.

A Figaro chain is a curb chain with the pattern interrupted, usually three short links and one long one. It behaves like curb, with the caveat that the long links are the places it bends and therefore the places it eventually wears thin.

Box, the quiet one

A box chain is made of square links that nest into each other, so the finished chain is a square section cord with a faint brickwork pattern. It is stronger than it looks, holds a pendant straight without twisting, and reflects light in flat flashes rather than a continuous shine.

It is a sensible chain for an asymmetric pendant, because the square section resists rotation. A charm that insists on lying face down on a cable chain will often behave on a box.

Its failure mode is a kink. A box chain bent hard at one point deforms permanently, and the chain then has a hinge in it where the next failure will happen. It will not recover by being straightened. This is the reason a box chain should never be crammed into a pocket.

Snake, which looks the best and survives the least

A snake chain is a series of closely fitted plates forming a smooth, round, almost solid cord. It is the sleekest chain there is, catches light along its whole length, and is the one most often photographed because it looks like liquid metal.

It is also the most fragile construction in common use. The plates rely on each other for position, and a single sharp bend separates them and leaves a permanent crook. Once that happens the chain is finished, because the damage cannot be soldered out and a jeweller cannot splice a new section in.

If you buy a snake chain, buy it knowing that. Never fold it, never knot it, never let it go through a washing machine in a pocket, and store it hanging or flat and straight. Worn gently it looks better than anything else on this list for years. Treated like a cable chain it lasts a season.

Rope and herringbone, the two extremes

A rope chain is made of many small links set in a spiral so the chain looks twisted. Heavy rope chains are genuinely strong and have a lot of surface, so they read as substantial. Fine rope chains are the worst tanglers of any construction, because the spiral catches on itself.

A herringbone chain is a flat ribbon of slanted plates, mirror bright and completely smooth. It is beautiful and it is the most delicate thing you can hang round a neck. Herringbone kinks if you look at it wrongly, and a kinked herringbone has a crease across it forever.

Both are worth owning and neither is worth owning carelessly. If a necklace will live in a bag, in a coat pocket, or under a seat belt every day, buy curb or cable and keep the snake and the herringbone for evenings.

The parts that break before the chain does

In practice most necklaces do not break in the chain at all. They break at the jump ring that joins the pendant to the chain, because that ring is often a single loop of unsoldered wire carrying all of the load at one point. If you are going to upgrade one component, upgrade that.

After the jump ring, the spring in a spring ring clasp. It is a coiled wire in a tiny channel, it collects skin oil and fluff, and it stops closing fully long before anything else wears out. A lobster clasp has a larger spring and lasts longer. A bolt ring is the weakest of the three.

Judge the chain by weight in the hand rather than by photograph. A chain that feels like nothing will behave like nothing under a solid charm. If you want to know the gauge or the construction on a particular piece of ours before you order, email us and we will read the supplier's spec for that exact item rather than quote a general rule. The chain and the charm are frequently made by different factories, and on a piece like a double sided pendant the charm is usually the part that outlives everything.

If you have had chains fail on you repeatedly, the honest answer is to wear your weight on something that does not depend on a single joint. A choker on a lace or ribbon band, like a small rose on a band, has no jump ring in the load path at all, and a moth worn at the throat carries its weight across a width of material rather than one loop of wire.

Questions people actually ask

Which necklace chain type is the strongest?

Curb and heavy rope are the most robust in everyday wear, and box is stronger than it looks. Cable is the easiest to repair because a jeweller can replace one link. Snake and herringbone are the weakest, since a single hard bend ruins them permanently.

Why does my chain keep twisting and the pendant turning round?

Round link constructions like cable and rope rotate freely, so an asymmetric pendant settles wherever gravity puts it. A box or curb chain has a flat or square section that resists rotation and holds a charm facing forward.

Can a broken snake chain be repaired?

Usually not. The plates in a snake chain hold each other in position, so a kink separates them and leaves a permanent crook that cannot be soldered out or spliced. A broken cable or curb chain, by contrast, is a straightforward repair.

Why do necklaces always break at the pendant?

Because the jump ring joining the pendant to the chain is often one loop of unsoldered wire carrying the whole load at a single point. It opens under a snag before any link in the chain gives way. A soldered or doubled ring fixes it.