Jeweller - March Issue 2017

SOAPBOX
IT’S A WORLD OF METAL MADNESS
At 47, I don’t class myself as old. Certainly
I’m old to my 12 and 13-year old boys
because I’m not up-to-date with current
YouTube celebrity videos or memes.
Theirs is a different world but I am happy
in the world of jewellery manufacture
and still feeling pretty current.
What does make me question my age is my
jewellery language. In the old days I could
order “18-carat stock gauge and it wouldn’t
crack and split upon the first roll”.
Once upon a time, I wouldn’t find “gas
bubbles in a new 18-carat white gold bar”
and when I was a younger jeweller, I never
saw “new platinum come with massive
folds that needed peeling apart before
I could start”.
Today I struggle to find consistency in
materials that were predictable up until
15 years ago. Am I simply too fussy for my
own good or is there something wrong
with the materials we are now being
supplied? My guess is the latter.
A good job needs good materials;
foundations of anything are important.
I have watched the CAD world take off in a
big way but will shout for a few years longer
that current-blended cast material is too
brittle for lasting quality.
I choose to proceed in a classical way and
work with stock gauge so I can guarantee
the durability and quality of my work.
When calculations are done to quote a job,
it is with very fine tolerances of waste. Let’s
be realistic – precious metals are expensive,
right?! My experience has taught me that
I do not need 50 grams of stock gauge to
produce a simple four-gram ring and I am
proud of this skill.
Clean, newly-refined material has always
been a joy to work with; it’s contaminated
metals that are a pain. The deal now is that
newly-purchased stock metal does not
react in a joyous predictable way but more
like the contaminated mystery blends that
come from customers presenting old rings
to be melted down. In order to work with
contaminated, rogue-behaving materials,
a greater quantity is needed to allow for
all the inherent cracking and failure.
The second issue with the currently-available
spate of designed metals is that trimmings
and lemel are not capable of taking to
re-melting like a decade ago. The new
generation of gold refiners are kept mighty
busy processing third-rate product that
artificially generates work from products
via inbuilt design failure.
All too often, material that would once
respond to my gentle, skilled caress is now
demanding a warrior to whip the beast into
submission. I have become a proverbial
animal trainer and it’s not good enough to
be told, “Stop complaining. You will get your
money back on the material you have left
over when you refine.”
There are not 100 gold stock suppliers out
there so the industry seems a little sewn up
from my point of view. After the financial
crisis of recent times, strong and sturdy
metal-supply businesses have been forced
into amalgamating, selling up and/or cutting
corners. Suppliers are fast becoming run
THE DEAL NOW
IS THAT STOCK
METAL DOES NOT
REACT IN A JOYOUS
PREDICTABLE WAY
BUT MORE LIKE THE
CONTAMINATED
MYSTERY BLENDS
THAT COME FROM
CUSTOMERS
PRESENTING
OLD RINGS TO BE
MELTED DOWN
by accountants trying to make a dollar on
the stock market, not metallurgical experts
selling a true product for steady income.
My complaints to suppliers seem to fall
on deaf ears – I recently expressed my
grievances to one salesperson and they
replied, “Oh, it has always been that way
and we rarely ever get complaints.”
I was then handed a complaint form
from a nearby drawer piled high with
completed, neatly-aligned complaint forms
that I imagine to be a never-ending line of
jewellers venting dissatisfaction.
What indeed can be done? Well, it would be
magic to again find a sympathetic, respectful,
trade-minded metal refiner with skilled and
detailed product knowledge and a view for
creating lasting relationships. I am ready and
waiting for you, whoever you are.
To the rest of you metal suppliers, you are
not doing yourselves any favours by doing
what you do – it opens up the market to
someone who can fill the space you have
just created.
As I sit here gazing into my beer after a long,
busy day, perhaps that mystery person with
the passion for quality and longevity of their
trade is indeed closer to home than at first
glance. In fact, it might be someone reading
this right now... or it might just be me. i
Name: James Tyler
Business: James Tyler Jewellery
Position: director
Location: Brisbane, QLD
Years in the industry: 30
50 Jeweller March 2017