THE PROCESS
There are hundreds of different methods we can use for repairing, restoring and making jewellery depending on the job and piece involved. However, one thing we definitely don’t do is buy in pre-cast pieces from another company, put a stone in it and tell you that we have ‘made’ it – beware, there are some ‘jewellers’ who will do just that.
We keep getting told by customers that many other jewellers are claiming that it is not possible to re-melt and mix scrap gold to make new pieces. This is simply a lazy lie - it can be done and even hallmarked without problem! Just note that the assay office will stamp the piece based on the lowest caratage it contains, so if you have a mix of 9ct and 18ct gold, they will mark it as a 9ct piece.
How to Order a Bespoke Commission
Our customers are urged to be creative, be choosy and be unique - all with a little help from Sonkai. Before you come to us it is good to have an idea of your budget, what type / colour of metal and stones you are after and what general style you like. It can be very helpful to have a look at images online from different sites. You can email to Sonkai any images you especially like before your design appointment at the store, so we can go through these with you. Generally 4 weeks is the absolute minimum amount of time we need to create your piece. Of course, the longer we have the better but we have made things within 48hrs when need be!
General Stages of Making a Piece
Melting and Pouring
The process starts with either new gold purchased by us from a bullion dealer, or gold provided by the customer themselves. We have made jewellery for customers from their own existing pieces / inherited sentimental items / broken items / from a Krugerrand coin and even from gold nuggets panned by the customer in Wales! Sometimes with new gold and certainly with scrap pieces / existing pieces / coins etc, we have to heat the metal until it is molten and pour it into an ingot to form one solid piece from which to start working with. We also work with the platinum family of metals but these have a much higher melting point than gold or silver and so we cannot melt and re-form existing jewellery or scrap pieces.
Rolling / Milling
When the bar of gold is taken from the ingot it is generally very thick. We then pass it through a cold rolling mill to reduce the thickness to something closer to what we need for our piece. For example, if we are making a wedding band that is 2mm thick, we will probably roll the metal to a strip about 2.1mm to allow clearance for filing and shaping.
Filing and Forming
Once we have the strip of gold, it then suffers many further punishments such as being bent into shape, cut with a saw, hit with a hammer, drilled, filed, sanded, soldered together and many other rough processes to complete the design and shaping of the piece.
If we are making a stone set ring the first step is to build the setting and collet for the stone before making up the shank of the ring.
Once the piece is finished and everything soldered into place, we then need to send the item to be hallmarked (we use the London Assay Office). If the customer has chosen to have engraving on their piece (inside or outside) it is given to our hand-engraver, here in Norwich. In this photo you can see Craig filing a pattern into the shank of a gold ring.
Setting stones
When we have the piece, fully hallmarked and engraved (if required), we can then go about setting the stones. Setting is a highly skilled process and often a separate trade in its own right, just like engraving. Many qualified goldsmiths will still send away their work for this stage. At Sonkai we are proud to set 99% of our own work, only outsourcing one or two pieces a year if they especially complicated designs or using an especially expensive stone that we get nervous about working with! In this photo you can see Craig setting a moonstone.
Polishing
Usually it isn’t until this final and seemingly basic (actually a lot of skill is required) stage has been carried out that the piece of jewellery looks like anything very pretty at all. Before a good polish the metal may still be a little rough, dull and generally a bit of an ugly duckling! The polishing could almost be considered the most important stage as it brings all the previous work together, showing up just how well it’s been constructed. We go through three stages to polish our jewellery on the machine. First we use a hard polish on a hard wheel. Next we use the same polish on a medium wheel. Lastly we use a soft rouge polish on a very soft wheel for the final bright shine. We then put the item into an ultrasonic machine to sit for a few moments in a warmed water and ammonia mix to remove any tiny bits of polish residue. Trust us, even the smallest speck left over will run for miles and your hands will soon be black – just ask Craig about the apprentice tricks they would play on each other using this stuff!
