My girlfriend moved and I took down her antique chandelier. I thought there was a copper grounding cable, but unless it fell off, I think there was only a hot and a neutral (out of lampwire). I've seen other discussion of this topic, I apologize if this is redundant, but its not entirely clear to me what the solution is.

My chandelier is made out of metal, mostly bronze. It connects to the brace in the ceiling with a hollow screw, fairly standard.

I think the chandelier may have been grounded by a grounding screw, to the metal supporting brace. Does this makes sense? My understanding is that I can bend a hook in the end of the bare copper ground in my ceiling and connect this to the grounding screw? I'm a bit uncomfortable with this, I really don't understand how this grounds my chandelier.

The other option I've seen is adding a grounding wire to my chandelier? Which is fine, I can borrow the ground from the chandelier it is replacing. I'm not sure I understand where to attach it however.

I know which of my wires are the hot and neutral, I know my wiring in the ceiling meets code, I'm not worried about it melting, I know my brace will support my chandelier - I believe I have these things covered.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Chris

Touching a chandelier AND something else grounded at the same time is not usually an easy thing to do, so the actual hazard is fairly minimal.

Yes, there is a bare grounding wire in the metal box in the ceiling. I was thinking I could attach this to a grounding screw in the brace I'm hanging the chandelier from - but I don't entirely understand how this grounds the chandelier. It hangs from a bronze chain? Does bronze conduct?

And about not grounding the chandelier. I agree, if this is in my house I wouldn't give it a second thought. But my girl's ex is a contractor, will likely ask questions (they have kids together, I don't blame him), but I VERY much don't want to loose face in front of him...

thank you

If there are not screw fittings attaching the arms they will need a separate wire attached at some point to each arm.

If there is a ground wire in a metal box it should be attached to a screw in the box to ground the box.

The normal method is to pigtail the ground wire coming in and attach one connection to the box grounding screw, and then use a wire nut no attach the fixture ground to another wire from the wire nut.

If the fixture is old it is unlikely to be worth the trouble to bother trying to ground it.

The hazard would be the hot wire in the fixture coming in contact with the metal of the fixture and energizing it.
If you touched the fixture AND a ground you would receive a shock.

It is pretty rare to have a ground near a chandelier in a residential setting.

If you want to be extra secure, once you have it wired and hung, connect an extension cord to a grounded receptacle. Then touch one lead of a hardware store neon tester to the ground pin hole in the extension cord female end, and the other to the chandlier metal. If you get no glow, you're fine (at least for now).

If there are not screw fittings attaching the arms they will need a separate wire attached at some point to each arm.

Please elaborate.

Chris

Only screw fittings in tapped holes are allowed as a bonding method for grounding connections.
No self taping screws, no friction fits.

When a grounding connection is required it needs to be 'gas tight' and have long term reliability (as in low impedance).

Non 'gas tight' connections are subject to corrosion and make poor long term low impedance electrical connections.