Thank you to all who wrote in their technical help on Keum boo. One
more question. What is the correct way to stamp a keum boo piece?
Grace in Cleveland
@tom_grace_stokes
Thank you to all who wrote in their technical help on Keum boo. One more question. What is the correct way to stamp a keum boo piece?
If you are referring to a quality mark like "22K " or “sterling”
then in the US there is no legal way to indicate the metals in the
piece. The Stamping Act and the FTC Guides just never took into
consideration a multi-metal piece. To use something like “22K and
sterling” in combination is not ok because the requirement for using
the quality mark is that the piece could be melted down and assayed
and it would assay to at least 22k or Sterling and obviously if you
have combined the two then it will not assay as either 22k or
Sterling. I am sure some people will write in saying that they have
seen someone else use the combinations of stamps. And yes I have
even seen it misused on Tiffany pieces (marked Platinum and 18K)
however that still does not make it correct or legal. You can stamp
each individual part with its quality mark (sterling on the sterling
parts and karat stamps on the karat bits) but that is not generally
a pleasant design element.
But you are unlikely to be given a hard time over this unless
someone can make a case that you are trying to be deceptive then the
FTC or some prosecutor that nothing better to do could give you a
bad time about it.
You can however mark it “Keum boo” and not use any of the legal
names like gold, silver, 14k etc. and then tell people what you use
to make it in your promotional
Jim Binnion James Binnion Metal Arts Phone (360) 756-6550 Toll Free
(877) 408 7287 Fax (360) 756-2160 http://www.mokume-gane.com
@James_Binnion Member of the Better Business Bureau
If you are referring to a quality mark like "22K " or "sterling" then in the US there is no legal way to indicate the metals in the piece. The Stamping Act and the FTC Guides just never took into consideration a multi-metal piece.
Actually, The FTC guides do explicitly take multi-metal pieces into
consideration, which is why the Guide 23.9 states
(a) Deception as to applicability of marks.
(1) If a quality mark on an industry product is applicable to only
part of the product, the part of the product to which it is
applicable (or inapplicable) should be disclosed when, absent such
disclosure, the location of the mark misrepresents the product or
part’s true composition.
(2) If a quality mark is applicable to only part of an industry
product, but not another part which is of similar surface appearance,
each quality mark should be closely accompanied by an identification
of the part or parts to which the mark is applicable.
Lee Einer
Dos Manos Jewelry
http://www.dosmanosjewelry.com