With regard to stamping, my understanding is that an item like makume
gane is stamped to indicate each metal involved with the piece, in
order of the quantity used. Is that not correct?
Michelle Fontaine
With regard to stamping, my understanding is that an item like makume gane is stamped to indicate each metal involved with the piece, in order of the quantity used. Is that not correct?
No this is incorrect. You cannot use multiple quality marks on a
piece unless they are applied to the area that is applicable to that
mark. So if you had a 18K yellow gold ring shank with a platinum head
in theory you are supposed to mark the shank with the 18k stamp and
the head with a platinum quality mark. That said you will often see
both stamps on the shank. In the case where the head is platinum and
the shank is yellow gold this is easy for the consumer to know the
difference and it would be unlikely to attract negative attention
from the FTC. But if you had for example a 18k white shank and a
platinum head and marked both on the shank which mark refers to what
item? If you read the guides there is only one sentence that comes
close to addressing multiple metals and it is the one that indicates
that the part of the item that is of the particular quality must be
stamped with the appropriate quality mark. Which brings us back to
mokume unless you can stamp each material with the appropriate mark
it is not advisable to stamp it at all.
James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
With regard to stamping, my understanding is that an item like makume gane is stamped to indicate each metal involved with the piece, in order of the quantity used. Is that not correct?
Not in Australia, Australian standards have control over this. We’ve
recently changed our hallmarking also.
Be interesting to see how other countries handle this.
Regards Charles A.
Not in Australia, Australian standards have control over this. We've recently changed our hallmarking also. Be interesting to see how other countries handle this.
Addendum:
I just purchased the Australian Standard this morning.
We have to stamp a mixed alloy ring with the component metals,
including base metals. The order of stamping is from right to left
with the higher proportion of metal preceding the lesser proportion
of metal.
If the piece is too small to be stamped, a suitable card or tag must
be attached to the article. Making a statement about the Australian
standard, by a manufacturer, must be verifiable.
Regards Charles A.
I think this Australian method of hallmarking is good. It seems that
we in the states need to update our stamping laws to include
something like this. Simply not stamping an item because I can find no
room to stamp each area separately is not satisfactory.
Michelle Fontaine
Hi Michelle,
I think this Australian method of hallmarking is good. It seems that we in the states need to update our stamping laws to include something like this. Simply not stamping an item because I can find no room to stamp each area separately is not satisfactory.
The Australian standard has some fairly large loop holes so that a
person that uses mixed metals can can stamp according to the
Australian standard.
We used to have a gold stamp for settings and a gold stamp for gold.
Now we’ve got one stamp for gold, one for silver, one for platinum
and one for palladium, the rest are chemical symbols. However
stainless steel can be SS or StS (imagine stamping the formula for
stainless steel :-D)
I was concerned that I couldn’t stamp any mokume gane created,
fortunately this is not the case.
Regards Charles A.