TREATMENT AND CARE OF PEARLS 385
An
ingenious method, termed "keying," for securing the peg in pearls to be
set on rings or studs, consists in drilling a hole half through the
pearl and then two smaller holes or grooves on each side of the first.
Cutting tools of a T-shape are now introduced into the aperture and
worked about until the pearl is undercut all around, so that when a peg
with a cross-piece is inserted, the latter can be turned within the
pearl until it sets at right angles with the widest part of the
aperture. In this way the peg is permanently secured and cannot slip
out.
The
fact that in recent years more pearls have appeared in necklaces that
are irregularly bored, that the bore holes are so large that they are
plugged with mother-of-pearl, or that one meets with pearls in which a
plug has been placed in the side immediately in the center between the
two drill holes, is due to the fact that the great demand has resulted
in the destruction of many oriental ornaments in which the pearls were
drilled in various ways, as well as in the destruction of the different
Magyar and other semi-official jewels of eastern Europe.
The
most primitive known drills were the flint drills, made by the North
American Indians by chipping chert or flint-like minerals to a fine
point. With these rude instruments a large, irregular hole was made,
which generally measured several times the diameter of the fine drill
hole made by a modern pearl driller with an improved drill. The Indians
are also said to have used hot copper drills for boring holes.
The
earliest, and still a very general and perhaps the best way of drilling
pearls, is by means of the bow- or fiddle-drill. This method has been
used in a more or less perfected form by all the aboriginal peoples of
the New World from Iceland to Tierra del Fuego. But as none of these
peoples were familiar with fine, hard steel, they scarcely ever
succeeded in making drill holes as fine as those that can be produced
by the use of tempered steel. By the latter means, pearls half an inch
in diameter are often drilled entirely through with an aperture no
larger than a thin bit of straw.
The
largest and finest pearls are frequently drilled with the smallest
holes, as the slightest loss in weight means a diminution in value.
Then, too, a pearl with a small drill hole is not so liable to shift on
the string, and thus is less likely to cut the silk thread which holds
the pearls together.
It
would be difficult to enumerate all the tricks to which some jewelers
now resort in order to utilize every fragment of a pearl they can lay
their hands on. Some of them are wonderfully clever at reconstruction,
but to the woman who loves pearls, nothing can take the place of the
soft, beautiful, round gem, with its natural surface.
In sorting pearls for the smaller necklaces, it is customary to open
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