Hi,
I was cleaning my wifes Omega chain by pulling it thru a cleaning
pad and it curled up in loops. It was almost as if it work hardened
and has no flexibility. Is there any way to salvage this chain.
Thanks for your help
Gerry
You may want to try taking a wallpaper roller VERY VERY lightly and
GENTLY roll it over it while it’s layed out as flat as possible. It
sounds as though you may have stretched it a little, like you would
curl a ribbon. This also works for herringbone chains. If you don’t
have a roller, you can use a shot glass. The key is GENTLE!
If we are indeed talking about an omega(fine flat mesh chain covered
with fitted shaped tubes?) what may have happened is when you pulled
the chain the tubes got stacked tightly against each other. If this
is so, you’d see a gap near one end where you can see the underlying
chain between the links. Try pulling in the opposite direction
carefully, to unstack them. If the chain itself got stretched or
damaged, you are probably out of luck.
If its something more like a herringbone (from the description of
’curled up in loops’, this sounds plausible) try first untwisting
the loops, tricky and fussterating. Then pull the chain over a smooth
steel rod or ring mandrel, with a shoe shine motion to seat the
links better.