Implied Warranties

Yesterday I had a young gentleman in to look at wedding bands. As we talked however, it quickly became apparent that looking at bands was only one of the reasons he wanted to talk. He had purchased an engagement ring at another local jeweler and one of the side stones on it had fallen out three weeks after he purchased it. When he went back to the jeweler about it, they charged him to replace the stone! Three weeks after he bought it!

Before I get into my main topic here I need to talk a bit about some of the things that are going on in my industry these days. Because of the increase in metal prices many manufacturers have scaled back, in any way that they can, the amount of gold going into their products. A great example of this is what is going on with commercially made earrings with posts on them. The manufacturers have been shaving off the amount of metal in the posts making them a very, tiny bit thinner. I know, you're thinking how can shaving off a hair of gold on a post make any difference cost wise? Well you're right, if you're talking about one post. Now think about it if they do it on a million posts. Aha! Suddenly you're talking about huge savings (for the manufacturers not you). So what is the problem with this? Well all of the gold backs that go on those posts are designed for thicker posts so they don't work for long and you're losing your earrings. Or, even worse, they've lightened up the metal in the gold back as well. The backs are designed to work through tension. Remove more metal, you get less tension. Less tension means---you got it------lost earrings! This is something you should be looking at if you're buying your jewelry somewhere besides Spirer Jewelers. If those backs don't work so well to begin with, they are only going to get worse.

Another instance of jewelers cutting back in a negative way is the latest trend of micro pave. This involves setting a whole bunch of microscopic diamonds in a pave style, usually around most of the shank of a ring or over extensive parts of the top. It makes it look like you're getting a lot of diamond but in fact most of the stones are junk and so tiny that they are really just about worthless (except for fixing the rings when the things fall out). There are tiny beads of metal pushed up over each stone. Now pave setting, or bead setting, as it is also known is a nice way to set stones. The stones are set flush into the metal, and when properly done, actually make the whole piece sparkly, as opposed to just the stones themselves. However when you are dealing with stones that are often no bigger than one fifth of a millimeter, you can't exactly push a reasonable sized bead up over them or you won't see the stones (this actually happens on poorly made bands sometimes). So there is basically a microscopic bead of metal holding in a microscopic diamond, which means that the metal gets broken off quickly and routinely and you lose your diamonds. Jewelers are using it because, again, it gives the look of a lot of diamond, but the customer pays the price by purchasing something that just won't last over time.

Now the young gentleman's ring wasn't horribly made by any means. But the six small marquis accents were set with a single round prong at each end. This might have been due to cost savings or possibly because that was the look the designer wanted. Either way it was a bad idea. When you have only two prongs holding in a stone you're just bound to have problems. Usually, when setting small marquis diamonds in which more prongs would hide too much of the stone, or would not make the piece as attractive, a V-shaped setting is used on the ends. This type of setting actually extends down a little bit on each side of the marquis from the point, which means that you are holding the stone in on both ends, and both sides at both ends. Consequently one of the prongs broke off and one of the marquis diamonds fell out.

Okay, you know, stuff happens. You're often dealing with a handmade (or at least partly handmade as setting stones still pretty much has to be done by hand) product and not everyone is perfect. I have certainly made my share of mistakes over the years. And I still routinely make stuff up for people and toss the first one because, even with all of my years of experience, sometimes stuff happens. It just does. That's not the problem in this case (although because of the way the stones were set he is going to have an ongoing problem with them). The problem is that three weeks after he got the piece a stone fell out and he had to PAY for the repair!

So let's forget, for a minute, about how bad that is from a customer service standpoint (and remember that you're reading something written by a guy who pretty much unconditionally guarantees everything he makes for life). The real issue in this case is something that is known as an "implied warranty". This is a legal term and it is quite real. Basically the law of implied warranty states that if you purchase a product you have a legal right to assume that it should hold up for a reasonable period of time, given the product and the price paid. So if you buy a new computer, but don't purchase one of those expensive guarantee plans they are always trying to sell you, and it stops working in a month, you have the right to demand that the company you purchased it from either fix it at no cost or replace it regardless of whether or not you had bought their "plan". This is because it is a reasonable assumption that a computer will last a heck of a lot longer than a month. On the other hand if you buy a head of lettuce and it rots in your fridge after a week, you have no claim. A head of lettuce wouldn't be expected to last longer than a week in normal circumstances.

The same thing applies to jewelry. If you purchase a new piece of jewelry, the usual expectation is that it should hold up a reasonable period of time. It's not always easy to define "reasonable period of time", but I can assure you that three weeks is NOT! For a cheap silver ring, probably a reasonable period of time might be 6-12 months at best. For an expensive gold and diamond ring, my belief is that a year is about a minimum time period. After that, normal wear and tear can impact the piece enough that it won't necessarily be the fault of the jeweler. Now there are times when this may not be the case. If a customer comes in and wants a design made up that is structurally unsound (and he can get a jeweler to agree to make it that way) then a jeweler might have the right to argue that it is always the customer's responsibility. Also anything purchased used does not have these inferred rights.

So what are your options when you are buying something like an expensive piece of jewelry? The first thing you have to do is ask what, exactly, the guarantees are on the piece. If the jeweler has nothing in writing about it then you should ask for something in writing. If there are no guarantees being offered then I would simply walk away because even though there is always an implied warranty, it's going to be harder to deal with the seller. An implied warranty allows you to take legal action, but as you know, that can sometimes be costly (although occasionally if you just bring up this topic when having a problem, and then threaten legal action, you will get satisfaction). So really, why would you even want to deal with this if you don't have to. Better to buy from someone who offers an extensive, written warranty on their product.

To make matters worse in this young man's case, he was charged one third of the cost of the total ring (excluding the center stone) to replace the one diamond. So they sold him six diamonds and a ring to begin with and then charged him one third of that price to just replace one of those diamonds. That makes no sense to me at all. Fortunately his father is a lawyer and I suggested to him that he get him to write a letter and also that he challenge the credit card charge until the issue is resolved appropriately.

It is also unfortunate that, even in this economy, small jewelers still seem to act with such impunity and complete disregard for customer satisfaction. If you're not getting good vibes from someone, it's just better not to buy from them.

I haven't been writing much of late but when I'm already working seven days a week to get my jobs done, I can't seem to justify a lot of time writing as well. Hmmm.......which is more important: getting the customer's jobs done or writing on the blog??? I guess it depends on whether you're reading me or buying from me. But I am still here. I did get one of the new opals mentioned in my last post made up into a ring and a picture of it is here. The new opal beads and black keshi pearl strand (also pictured) are also both strung and ready to go.

I was recently informed by my diamond supplier that prices on all of the range of goods I sell have just gone up (again). It is another indication of just how rare the goods I sell are getting. More interestingly however is this. I used to get a lot of people in complaining about how De Beers was a monopoly and all diamond prices were falsely inflated. They all seemed to think that in an open market the prices would collapse. Well as it happens De Beers now controls less than 40% of the market and no longer is holding a monopoly on diamond production and sales. And yet, not only haven't prices collapsed, they've been fairly steadily going up (with the exception of a slight dip at the beginning of the recession). I have to conclude that the prices De Beers charged were not falsely inflated. Of course when you think about the fact that a ton (yes 2000 lbs) of rock has to be removed to just end up with about a carat of diamond material it becomes pretty apparent that the pricing is there for a reason.

Speaking of pricing, gold has continued to stay at extremely elevated levels (around $1400/0z). I was previously of the opinion that this was a temporary increase and that eventually it would begin to drop. While I still believe the price will come down a bit at some point (say if the economy improves, the Middle East calms down and Japan survives its latest woes) I no longer believe it will ever return to the levels it was at a few years ago. Now hopefully (and because I consistently lose when gambling or investing in the stock market---oh wait that's the same thing) I will have just jinxed gold prices and they will plummet shortly. But I wouldn't count on it. The bad news about this is that, well yes, everything is more expensive. The good news is that everything you already own is worth more! I am actually anticipating more increases in the jewelry industry across the board. Better sapphires and other colored stones have gone up significantly as well. Due to various practices in the industry becoming more common (sustainable mining practices, better pay for miners and laborers associated with the industry, stricter environmental laws) things are just simply going to cost more. Not necessarily a bad thing that these things are taking place but neccesary if we want the planet to survive. And for those of you who want these things to be taking place please note they do cost more money so you need to be prepared to pay more.

My occasional assistant Jason got a very nice picture of the boulder opal in the ring but, trust me, it looks even better in real life. The black keshi pearls pictured are the closest thing you can get to natural pearls these days. Unlike Chinese keshi pearls, these pearls start entirely spontaneously after the large oysters have been implanted with bead nucleii to start making cultured salt water pearls. The Chinese keshi pearl process is a little different and done purposely to create those "keshi" pearls. The South Sea process is entirely random and there is never a way to know if a secondary keshi pearl will form.

New Opals Are In

I just met with my opal/South Sea pearl dealer on Tuesday and, as usual, ended up with some magnificent new stones. I got two strands of small boulder opal beads and a strand of black South Sea keshi pearls that are all at the stringer now (pictures will be posted once they return). I also got a few very unusual opal pieces in, one of which will be going out in a pin shortly, one, a piece from Koroit in Australia, in a pendant and I got an absolutely psychedelic smaller piece that I am going to be setting up in a ring fairly soon. Pictures of these will be posted as they come out. Anyone interested in seeing the unset stones can come in anytime. I didn't get a lot but what I did get were absolutely unique pieces. The comet pin with a boulder opal and emeralds pictured here is not one of my new pieces but it was a great one!

Back from Vacation

When even my wife goes on my blog and starts complaining that I haven't written anything in too long, I know that I'm way overdue.
We did go and spend some time getting refreshed in my favorite place in the whole world, Big Sur California. We went back to our favorite inn which you can check out here: http://www.ventanainn.com/ . Those of you who have been reading all along will remember that we had an incredibly memorable experience there two years ago with the wonderful (regrettably) temporary chef Phillippe. Unfortunately Phillippe seems to have moved on and we were unable to see him again (anywhere), much to our dismay. However Ventana's restaurant is now up and running after their fire and they are doing a much better job in general with food than they used to. And the views from both the restaurant and the inn are still unbelievable. This picture is of us standing at the front of the patio of the Ventana restaurant and you can see the mountains that make Big Sur so memorable. If you could see a few feet to the right of us you would be able to see the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

Big Sur is so far out in the middle of nowhere that the night time sky is amazing. The first night there we saw shooting stars (many of you know how I fell about comets and things moving through space) and the sheer number of stars visible is overwhelming for a city boy like me. With the aid of a pair of binoculars it is astounding how much you can see.

We took a hike through some mountains in the Michele Pfeiffer State Park to see the Pfeiffer Falls (above) while we were there and then decided we should try to walk to the ocean through the Andrew Molera State Park. Unfortunately when we got there we were informed that we were going to have to ford the Big Sur River since they took all the bridges down in the winter. We didn't exactly come prepared for any river fording so we had to abandon that particular adventure!

So this is, in part why I have been so reticent in my writings recently. Between the end of the year inventorying, preparing to go on vacation, actually going on vacation, and then taking care of the large pile of work when I returned I have been fairly busy.

However one piece I made for a gentleman this past month was quite interesting. He had a jade carving that he had gotten in China that was very important to him. The rope like material it had come on originally had finally broken and he was desperate to wear it again. He wanted something that was consistent with the piece. I thought it would be nice if we could do an Asian style chain of some sort as that might fit the bill. In doing my research however the only type of chain that was distinctly Asian was a baht chain. Baht chains are made in Thailand and are often used in lieu of money. They are made up in 1/2, 1, 1.5 and 2 ounce weights and they are usually made of 23 1/4 kt. gold. I used to have a source for them but the problem with them was that they were always hollow. Hollow chains are problematic because the links get dented easily (especially in high karat golds). Actually I take issue with any hollow jewelry because of the damage problems. My source wasn't regularly stocking them anymore anyway and there was a timing issue as the gentleman is out of the country most of the year. So I offered to make him a solid version of the baht chain. This was an interesting project for me as I had never made a baht chain and I always relish a challenge. Additionally because of the significance of certain numbers to the Chinese, I needed to work these into the design of the chain. Eight is apparently a very important number to them, so I made the chain up with sets of eight round links alternating with eight square links (both styles are used in traditional Baht chains). I also built a new bail for the jade. This was all done in my own 22k gold mix and I poured all of my own gold just as I did in the chain in the last postings. The picture below is of the finished piece.

I still have plans to write about opals in the near future but I am also looking for new topic ideas. Please let me know if there is something you'd like to know about. Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching. Men readers take note. Ladies, remind your men that there is nothing more romantic than getting something special to remind you of how much they still love you or show your love for them by getting them one of my amazing William Henry Knives---one is pictured below!

There has been a lot of snow but I have actually never closed due to a snow storm and have no plans to. So if you're in my neighborhood in the middle of (yet another) snow storm come on in and visit! It's actually a great time to get my strictly undivided attention as usually no one else is ever there! Parking is a mess in Cambridge these days however, so you might want to think about taking the T at least part way in.

Part Two

Well it's not tomorrow but this is the soonest I could get back to my post on making the custom ordered chain. So here is the rest of the story:

Once the wire is made I have to roll it onto an appropriate sized pipe in order to make the circles I need to make the chain. Since by this time I have either a really, really long piece of wire or a bunch of shorter ones, it's not nearly as fast as one would think. Plus when rolling it onto the pipe I have to insure that it never overlaps so that the links are consistent in size. Once done with that I have to cut the links which, fortunately in this case, does not require me to saw them as it isn't necessary to have an absolutely perfect join on these links to fuse them, so I use a small pair of shears I have to cut the loops. Then all of the loops (and please note we are talking about hundreds of loops) have to be bent so that the two ends line up perfectly. Once done with that I can begin the actual fusing process. Once again I spend a large amount of time fusing links with a hot flame about 2 inches from my face. Periodically I have to toss some links into a separate pile as they aren't bent together properly and at the same time I start a separate pile of links that melt while I'm fusing them, or simply don't fuse properly. When I finish fusing all the links (hundreds, remember?) I go back and rebend the pile of ones that didn't come out right the first time and then go back to fusing them.

Once this first round of fusing is done, I have to stretch the loops into a long oval shape with a pair of round nose pliers. This inevitably leads to about a 20% breakage of the fused joints as they just didn't take properly. Those links are tossed into the pile with the other ones that didn't fuse properly. The ones that hold up okay are then squeezed in the middle to get a kind of elongated figure 8 effect. Once done with that I have to go back to my pile of bad links and guess what? I have to start all over again with pouring them into my ingot mold and then making them into wire which is then formed into loops and fused and stretched yet again (whereupon I will end up with another, albeit smaller, batch of bad links).

So now I have a bunch of figure 8 shaped links. I then have to fuse two of them together in opposite directions to start the chain. Once this is done, I bend up the ends and begin the actual chain making process. This involves putting each link through TWO (once I get the first few started) of the links in the chain, then rotating the chain 90 degrees and putting the next one through from the opposite direction. Each time I put a link through I have to then push a small sharp tool through the top two links to stretch them out so that they are prepared for the next link that will go through. This, inevitably, leads to more link breakage as by this time I am truly putting an extreme amount of pressure on each join in each link. When a link does break it is almost always one back a few links so periodically I have to remove three or four links to get the broken one out and then start back at that point again. This process goes on until I run out of links, at which point guess what? You got it. I have to take all the broken links and all of the failures from the last round of link making and START ALL OVER AGAIN with a new pour of metal, make wire, make links and finally continue to make the chain. Phewww. Sounds like I'm done, huh? Well no.....................

After this, I have to anneal (heat the chain to soften it) repeatedly and then hammer it out gently with a wooden mallet on a block to stretch it and set all the links properly. After each hammering I have to anneal it and spend some time loosening it up. Okay so now we're done, right? Well no............

Then I have to make the caps that finish the chain off. This involves making new metal that I make into sheet metal. I then have to roll it into shape, fuse it together, fuse end caps on, fuse the wires that I wrap around it on, fuse the little gold beads on, drill out the ends for wires to go through, set small diamonds in the caps, and finally make one of my signature S clasps. I'm exhausted just writing about it!

So finally I have a beautiful chain, made to the right length, using all of the customer's metal and some of mine and it's ready to go. Then I have to contact the customer (made a little more complicated by the husband's desire to surprise his wife with it), get him into the store and deal with the final payment and packaging.

Estimated time here: 15-20 more hours. So you tell me how much you think this kind of job is worth!

The picture at the top is of the pure 24k gold we got back from our refiner after he purified the customer's Kruggerand.