What misdo you hear from customers or other jewelers,
jewelery terms, names of gems, techniques that bother you?
The one that I hear that bothers me the most is when the term pave is
used for what is really bead set, as pave is when faceted gems are
set girdle to girdle with the metal in between them raised to hold
the gems. Pave as in paved, not a single row or two rows, an area
that is covered with gems.
Richard Hart G.G.
Denver
Hi Folks…
Smokey topaz, when it’s smokey quartz…Even seen this in trade
mags, which immediately discounts any expertise the person
prognosticating has in my eyes…These are “experts” in jewelry
trends…
And, I am not talking about the occasional real smokey topaz that
does exist…at least I’ve seen a piece or two labeled as such, with
the emphasis on it being topaz, as opposed to quartz…
I’m not even gonna comment on the “semiprecious” term still in
common use…[G]…
Gary W. Bourbonais
L’Hermite Aromatique
A.J.P. (GIA)
Richard- For jewelers it’s…Gravers being called engravers. For
customers it’s… the silver/white gold misnomer.
And yes, the pave thing drives my husband Tim crazy as well.
Jo Haemer
www.timothywgreen.com
My pet peeve is still the term “semi-precious” which is not only
abused by the customers but also by a lot of jewelers too. It’s time
to ban it permanently.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
The term I hate is Certified Bench Jeweler!
To me that is meaningless without EXPERIENCE!
How many of you would trust your most valuable pieces to someone who
has this title only to find out that they spent a week at some place
and paid $2000 to make a Bezel set onyx pendant or retipped 6 prongs
on a brass alloy ring, and has a piece of paper that says that they
have a certificate of Bench repair or whatever!??? Grrrrr!
My vote is “synthetic” vs “simulated”. They are NOT terms to be used
loosely. They are not interchangeable definitions of a stone.
How many of you would trust your most valuable pieces to someone who has this title only to find out that they spent a week at some place and paid $2000 to make a Bezel set onyx pendant or retipped 6 prongs on a brass alloy ring, and has a piece of paper that says that they have a certificate of Bench repair or whatever!??? Grrrrr!
Well, yeah, but the JA certifications, while they don’t ensure lots
of experience, are at least fairly stringently graded in terms of the
quality of the work you have to demonstrate on their exams. Does that
mean lots of experience? No. But it does at least mean that the
person demonstrated reasonable competence at the specific skills that
certification level indicates.
And experience itself is also no guarantee. I’ve known a few
jewelers who had well over 30 years experience, thought they knew it
all, and still couldn’t solder, file, or saw their way out of a paper
bag to save their lives. Lots of experience is good if the person has
learned from it. Some, though, have lots of experience at doing
things wrong…
For my money, I’d prefer both experience, AND some formal training.
And then I want to see the actual work…
Peter
My vote is "synthetic" vs "simulated".
And lets not forget the way “lab”, “lab grown”, and “cultured” are
often tossed about by sellers not quite willing to use either
synthetic or simulated… And then there are the originally
legitimate gem names that get subtle alterations. or made up but
good sounding names. How many consumers would realize that “Lannyte”,
or whatever that whole brand name line of various simulants and
synthetics is called, is simply a made up meaningless name? I recall
one lady who insisted that she wanted only GENUINE Lannyte stones
like she’d seen in some catalog… That was almost as good as the
gal who insisted that she KNEW, because she’d heard it on a TV
shopping channel, that white gold came from different types of gold
mines than yellow gold. Nothing I could say to explain alloying to
her could get through that thick skull…
Peter
Hi Folks…
My vote is "synthetic" vs "simulated". They are NOT terms to be used loosely. They are not interchangeable definitions of a stone.
It gets better depending upon how technical one wants to be…
Synthetic generally means man-made…In the world of it
usually refers to a man-made stone that has a natural counterpart,
which it shares general properties with i.e. synthetic ruby…
Then there are things like YAG*, etc., which do not have a
counterpart in the natural world, but are man-made simulants, and yet
by gem terminology are not a synthetic stone…
Finally there are general simulants, which can be anything that
looks like the natural stone, no matter what it is…glass,
plastic, whatever that mimics the natural stone…
So you have synthetics, which have essentially nature equivalent,
then man-made stones which do not exist in nature, so are only
simulants, but synthetics under normal usage of the term…And you
have natural stones which perform the function of simulants, and are
not synthetic at all…
Plus all the outright 'faux" stuff…
I think I got that right…[G]…
Gary W. Bourbonais
L’Hermite Aromatique
A.J.P. (GIA)
There may be some natural YAG somewheres…my favorite example used
to be CZ, but it was found in nature I forget when…
I wonder what a 1 carat natural CZ might be worth…if indeed
nature’s conditions even will allow for such a thing…
Hello Orchidians,
“Wholesale To The Public”
Mike DeBurgh, GJG
Henderson, NV
The one that used to cause me the most trouble was “ring sizer”.
There are three different things that can get confused. I insist
that my staff call them “finger gauge”, “mandrel” and “ring
stretcher” These three things are all tools dealing with ring sizing,
but neither is a substitute for another.
What misdo you hear from customers or other jewelers, jewelery terms, names of gems, techniques that bother you?
Jewellers who say soldering for brazing.
Is it just us in the jewellery trade that retain this inaccurate use
of the term ‘soldering’ for what we do? What we do is really brazing,
as it happens above 450degC (850degF) and the joint must be tight
enough to employ capillary action. And it’s got, or once had, some
brass in it! 
Rather than use it, or qualify it as hard or silver soldering, why
not use the less confusing term?
Brian
Auckland
New Zealand
www.adam.co.nz
then man-made stones which do not exist in nature, so are only simulants,
Man-made stones don’t have to simulate anything, they can be used as
jewelry in their own name. CZ is an example of a material which has
been used as a diamond simulant, but is also sold as itself.
Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ
Rather than use it, or qualify it as hard or silver soldering, why not use the less confusing term?
Industrial suppliers will give you very strange looks when you call
it silver soldering instead of silver brazing. Learned that one the
hard way:)
The one that used to cause me the most trouble was "ring sizer". There are three different things that can get confused. I insist that my staff call them "finger gauge", "mandrel" and "ring stretcher" These three things are all tools dealing with ring sizing, but neither is a substitute for another.
And perhaps the “ring sizer” could be either the goldsmith altering
the size of a ring, or the sales person measuring the customer’s
finger… 
Peter
Seems to me the “ring sizer” is the goldsmith at the bench, and the
"finger sizer" is the sales person… }
Rather than use it, or qualify it as hard or silver soldering, why not use the less confusing term?
Will someone please explain to the novices in the forum, what the
difference between brazing, soldering and welding are? What type of
materials are soldered?
Thanks,
Lora
I would like to add that I think “Handcrafted” is mis-used especially
when it comes to strung jewelry which should be called “Assembled”,
but not “Hand Crafted”.
TL Goodwin
The Pacifik Image.
Will someone please explain to the novices in the forum, what the difference between brazing, soldering and welding are? What type of materials *are* soldered?
It’s to do with temperature.
"Brazing is a joining process whereby a filler metal or alloy is
heated to melting temperature above 4500C (8400F) and
distributed between two or more close-fitting parts by capillary
action... (the joint is) as strong as the parent materials".
That is what we jewellers do and we call it soldering.
"Soldering is distinguished from brazing by use of a lower
melting-temperature filler metal.... (the joint is) not as
strong as the base metal"
Welding. "done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler
material to form a pool of molten material (the weld pool) that
cools to become a strong joint".
Brian
Brian Adam
Auckland
NEW ZEALAND
www.adam.co.nz
Todd,
So, I open a catalog, order a calibrated setting, order a calibrated
stone, order a commercial chain, wait for delivery, then upon
arrival, I “assemble” and call it hand made.
Oh yes, another thing, “Denim Lapis.”
What Fools These Mortals Be.
Now to extract my tongue from my cheek.
BTW, about those “Certified” experts, recently spent most of a day
in the ER with a Resident attending me. Same result.
Hugs,
Terrie