Pearl epoxy

Recent threads on various epoxies and the care of pearls made me
reconsider my choice of securing pearls. Coming from a trade
background, I have always just used generic super glue. Would this 99
cent epoxy be my best choice for say a 10mm South Sea pearl? Thanks in
advance-
Sean

Hy Sean,

Epoxy glue will do the job for you and will not harm the pearl.
Although,Rio has special pearl glue which I preffer to use.Could be
that other stores have this pearl glue but that I don’t know.If I’m
not sure, I like to chose for a proofed fact instead of thaking a
guess.South sea pearls are not cheep enough to go for a guess.

Regards Pedro
Palonso@t-online.de

I am almost afraid to start this; but there are optional mechanical
methods for securing pearls. The first and easiest to explain:

  1. Take a 4/0 or smaller saw blade and split the end of the mounting
    peg for half of it’s length.

  2. Now file a wedge onto the end of a wire, gauged to fit the pearl
    hole.

  3. Carefully measure the depth of the drill hole in the pearly with
    the wire and mark it.

  4. Subtract the length of the uncut depth of post and cut your wedge
    to that length.

  5. Place the wedge into the end of your saw cut in the peg and place
    your pearl onto it.

  6. Push the pearl home, seating the wedge.

It takes some practice to do this regularly but it can be done
adhesive free if desired.

And my 2 cents, ( less depreciation ) on the super glue is that it
becomes too brittle to secure any pearls exposed to even moderate
wear. Use epoxy.

Norman

Hello Norman,

I’m happy that you mentioned the fact of setting pearls without the
use of glue.I’ve done this a few times and it really works well if
you’re not in a hurry,but like you said …it takes some practice.I
didn’t talk about the procedure,couldn’t find the right words to
cover every single step like you did.So thanks for saving me this
labor of translating this art of setting a pearl.

Regards Pedro
Palonso@t-online.de