Hello all:
I didn’t make myself clear enough about nickel being against the law
in Europe in my post on rhodium plating. I know that it is because
of the nickel allergies. That is one of the reasons the other
alloys are used in items that are made there or to be sold there.
I’m only saying if I can’t do it well I don’t want to do it and a
customer wanting something in white gold might decide on platinum or
yellow if given all the facts. Would it be ok to plate purple (if it
were available) over any color gold alloy and sell it as purple
gold? I don’t think that most would think so but is it against the
law?. The FTC regulates gold content not gold color. I’m not sure if
they have a rule on plating yellow to white and selling it as white?
I know that the rules are that if you stamp a quality mark it must
be that content but not any certain color. All I’m saying is that
the FTC or the JVC need to step in and get a handle on manufacturing
processes because if I as a trusted jeweler say to a customer that
rhodium plated white gold is “ok” or " just as good" or “it’s what
everyone is doing”, I just feel it cheapens my trade.
Say I’m a car dealer and I have a lot full of white cars and white
cars are all the rage. I really want to sell my white cars but
there’s this problem. In order to make the cars white a non durable
coating must be applied and it will wear off in 1 year under normal
driving conditions and the car will have to be repainted. Now I say
to the customer that I will repaint it free of charge as long as the
buy it from me. Do I tell the customer that the front of the car
will start looking dull and ugly within the first 2 months? I’m
saying that a well informed customer would probably not want the
white car.
This is of course my own opinion and I welcome all opinions on this
topic since this is an open forum for discussion. I have over the
years occasionally been proven wrong on my opinions and am grateful
for the learning. I am not a very good composer and it takes me a
long time to write emails and that is one of the reasons I don’t
post as much as I would like.
Michael R. Mathews Sr.