I’m a 14th generation jeweler. You?
Nothing about making a profit, just something about old world
craftsmanship.
When I was very young my father had our family tree traced back 500
years, I and my brother are 14th generation jewelers and I have a
cousin who would be 15th. It goes from Atlanta to New York and my
grandfather came from Russia, going further back to Spain, France
and England.
I started learning the bench at the age of 10 during the summers,
starting work after school when I got a car at 16. Later opened my
own shop/store August 1974 and had it for 25 years before branching
out to the consulting field. When I sold it (still going strong) we
did about 1.8 million and 75% of that coming from my price book.
My younger brother took over the family business and still has on
display some of the old tools that my grandfather owned as a
jeweler. For a torch my grandfather used a blow pipe. Can you
imagine sizing a ring with a flame and you blew through the pipe for
a hotter flame? (The two pictures I got off of Google image search,
they are close but not exact)
My father and grandfather were diamond setters in New York. To drill
a hole he used a hand cranked drill, like a hand mixer you’d use in
the kitchen. Can you imagine drilling 50 holes this way?
The reason for this post today is to share with you some video of
how things were made 75, 100 or more years ago. There’s a jeweler in
Virginia named Hugo Kohl who is building a workshop museum so to
speak. He has bought from many different areas and some defunct
manufacturers the tools and dies that were used to make jewelry many
years ago, probably in my grandfathers era.
With jewelers using laser welders, cad/cam machine, wax growers I
just thought you might like to see a small glimpse of how it used to
be done.
Go to this site to see a short video.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep80ve
Sincerely
David Geller
JewelerProfit.com