neil - just finished working some square malachite ‘plates’ & saw your
post about the job to repair a broken cab - probably malachite - that
has broken along the banding. the solution is simple: i intentionally
crack some larger malachite cabs or plates (sq) to prevent them from
doing it on their own later & add some interest by doing the
following:
cut a strip of 26g or 28g silver a littel longer than the width of
the cab at the point where it cracked & a little wider than the
thickness of the cab. then stick a narrow strip of double-sided tape,
longer than the cab, on a glazed tile (or anything that’s smooth &
isn’t ‘glue-able’). spread a smidgen of E6000 adhesive (the best i’ve
found) all over both cracked edges of the cab with a toothpick or
wood skewer & put one piece down onto half of the tape. snug the
silver strip up against this edge. hold the other glued edge up to
the strip & press that half onto the tape so that the silver strip is
stuck between the 2 pieces of malachite without any cracks or gaps -
don’t worry about the glue gooshing up too. for insurance you can
even set a small heavy items at four spots along the outside edges to
hold everything in place. give the adhesive time to set - overnight
is good. malachite in a bracelet worn more than a few months will
need repolishing anyway, so: using an old 400 to 600 grit sanding
disk carefully grind off the silver flush with the cab surface & then
do an all-over polishing with the 600 & then 800 & higher to finish
polishing. but you can get a fabulous shine with 1/4 or 1/2 micron
diamond paste. don’t forget to sand the adhesive & tape residue off
of the back.
after the cab is re-set, the result will be an elegantly polished cab
with a band of silver undulating between the other bands that looks
like it was there from the start - far less boring than just banded
material. good luck - ive