Clasps and Prongs: Exact Words at a Jewelry Repair Shop

Inside Uncle Leopold's Repair Shop (by Vesna, Grade 4)

1My uncle Leopold is a jeweler. People bring him broken necklaces, bracelets and rings, and he fixes them at a sturdy wooden workbench in the back of his shop. Last Saturday I watched him work, and I learned that jewelers use special words for the parts and tools of their job.

2First, a customer brought in a necklace with a broken clasp. A clasp is the small fastener that holds the two ends of a necklace together. Uncle Leopold looked at it through a loupe, a tiny magnifying glass that he held close to one eye. The loupe showed him that a little metal ring, called a jump ring, had pulled open. He used two pairs of pliers to twist the jump ring closed again.

3Next, he worked on a ring that was missing its stone. On many rings, a gemstone sits in a setting, the part of the ring that holds the stone in place. Some settings have prongs, which are thin metal claws that curve over the edge of the stone. One prong on this ring was bent, so the stone had slipped out. Uncle Leopold placed the stone back in the setting and gently pressed the prongs over it.

4The last job was a bracelet that had snapped in half. To join the two pieces, Uncle Leopold used solder, a metal that melts at a lower heat than the metal of the bracelet. He warmed the break with a small torch, and the melted solder flowed into the gap. When the solder cooled, it hardened and held the pieces together. Finally, he polished the bracelet on a spinning wheel until it shone.

5Before my visit, I would have said that my uncle "fixes the hooks and stuff on jewelry." Now I can explain his job with exact words like clasp, loupe, prong and solder. These words help a reader picture exactly what a jeweler does.