Abstract: A jewelry rope chain having tightly interfitting links made of wire of a given cross-section, each link having a small gap formed therein slightly larger than the cross-section of said wire, so as to enable one of said links to pass through the gap of a second such link, said links being intertwined to fit tightly one against the other and form in outward appearance a double helix, the improvement being that each link comprises a non-circular geometric shape, said shape comprising a major axis defining long outer and inner diameters and a minor axis defining shorter outer and inner diameters, said gap lying in a link section parallel to the major axis and said shorter inner diameter being just over X times greater than the cross-section of the link wire, where X is a number equal to or greater than 3.

Abstract: A rope chain made from precious metals, having tightly interfitting rings of a given cross-section diameter, each ring having a small gap slightly larger than its cross-section diameter to permit one ring to pass through the gap of a second ring, each of said rings having an inner diameter equal to just over X times greater than the ring cross-section diameter, where X is a number equal to or greater than 3, said rope chain being formed by a plurality of assemblies of said rings, in series, each assembly comprising X+1 rings, each ring of said assembly being angularly intertwined with an adjacent ring, each said assembly of rings comprising at least one ring oriented with its gap about 180.degree.