Gold earring cutter

[Doctordobig]

I want to trim the stem/post of a few of my stud earrings as they are too long and hurt when I sleep. I contacted a few jewellery repair places and quotes ranged from £15-40 per earring!

Surely I can do it myself? I just want to snip the end and I use those plastic rubber backs instead of butterfly backs so I don’t need the indentations that prevent the screws from slipping. Any jewellery making experts know what kind of plier I need for 9kt, 14k &18kt gold? I’m busy researching what type of plier to get but can only find thin jewellery wire cutters.

I don't know about gold, but I trimmed some sterling silver studs with standard pliers. I do also have smaller jewellery pliers as I make costume jewellery sometimes, which also work well.

A small hack saw with a fine blade will do the trick. You'll need to smooth off any rough edges with some sand paper. You could even use a coarse emery board for the smoothing.

Alternatively a good sharp pair of heavy duty flush cutters but that depends of the gauge of the wire. Normally posts are 0.8mm so you'd need one that can cut wire this thick. Again you'll need to round off the edges with sandpaper

I use a tiny saw on jewellery . I'm sure you could buy one online. Gold is pretty soft as metals go. My only caveat is I use the ring cutter saw to remove jewellery from people so you'd need to make sure you have it properly gripped somewhere to slice it?

Also, having removed hundreds of earrings or backs from people over the years (not with saw) I have to say don't sleep with your earrings in if at all possible . I know MN is a massive fan of telling folk to wear them overnight to wake up looking polished.... They've clearly never poked inside someones lobe or tragus trying to retrieve jewellery.

You could just bend them at a 90degree angle and then you won’t need backs on them either!

@Mrsmchammer

I use a tiny saw on jewellery . I'm sure you could buy one online. Gold is pretty soft as metals go. My only caveat is I use the ring cutter saw to remove jewellery from people so you'd need to make sure you have it properly gripped somewhere to slice it?

Also, having removed hundreds of earrings or backs from people over the years (not with saw) I have to say don't sleep with your earrings in if at all possible . I know MN is a massive fan of telling folk to wear them overnight to wake up looking polished.... They've clearly never poked inside someones lobe or tragus trying to retrieve jewellery.

I have hoops in all my holes, and haven't had any problems. I use 16 gauge hoops though.

I’ll have a look at little saws. I do have regular pliers but they’re rusted and I didn’t know how effective they would be.

I sleep in them as I have many many piercings and I’m too lazy to remove them at night I take them out twice a week to give the earrings and the earrings holes a proper scrub and that’s such a faff!

Thank you for all your replies.

As this is MN I feel like I have to explain - I do clean my ears every day in the shower. The twice a week clean I mentioned above is more a of deep clean without the earrings in.