The Nature of Diamonds

As the hardest natural material on the planet, diamonds have always held a unique position amongst the minerals of the earth. Some diamonds found in South America and Africa were actually created in outer space and deposited on Earth as a result of the asteroid showers that took place about 3 billion years ago. However, the vast majority of the diamonds on the planet were created over the course of millions of years just below the continental plates of the Earth’s crust.

While most of the world considers the word diamond almost synonymous with their use in jewelry, more than 80% of the world’s diamonds have industrial not commercial gemstone applications. Due to a diamond’s hardness and its ability to with stand high temperatures, most industrial diamond is embedded in the grinding, drilling cutting and polishing tools that power industry. With the creation of synthetic, man made diamonds more applications in the electronics and computer industries have become possible.

The history of diamonds as gemstones begins in India at least 3000 years ago, where they were used as adornments for religious statutes. Until the 18th century, India was the primary source for the world’s diamonds, being replaced at that time by Brazil. In the late 19th century South Africa became the primary source of diamonds, and up until today South Africa still accounts for almost half of the world’s diamonds. Many other countries contribute to the balance of diamonds in the world, including Russia, Australia, Canada, the Congo and Brazil. While the diamonds used as gemstones are primarily white, diamonds come in a variety of colors ranging from black and varying shades of brown, yellow, and pink. There are also very rare instances where green, blue, and red diamonds have been found. This last group of diamonds, those with a color other than white are sometimes called “fancies” or “fancy colored diamonds” and depending on the exact shade or color of the diamond command a premium price way in excess of what a similar white diamond might command.

Diamond in its raw form is called “rough diamond” and in many instances looks nothing like its brilliant and sparkling cousin. After being taken from the mines this “rough diamond” is sorted and graded by its size and potential shape and quality. It is then sold or traded through a series of dealers before ending up in a diamond-cutting factory where it is polished into the form that most people are familiar with. This done mostly in Europe, specifically Antwerp, Belguim where about 80% of all rough diamond is traded. The vast majority of diamonds are then sent to cutting factories, smaller stones going to India and the larger staying in Antwerp, or going to other major cutting centers in Israel or New York. Today, with modern methods of shaping and faceting the stones, diamonds are polished to near mathematical perfection guaranteeing brilliance, proportion and luster. These polished diamonds are then resorted and graded by their shape, size, color and clarity to be sold to dealers all over the world where they are ultimately used to create all the many different styles and types of jewelry that are available to the public.

The business of Diamonds is truly a global business with sales of all grades of diamond totaling more almost $9 billion US dollars a year. The growth of this business has been clearly fueled by the increased affluence of societies all over the world and their desire to own and wear gem quality diamonds as well as the many industrial uses this unique mineral provides.

To Platinum or Not to Platinum

In the almost fifty years that my family has been in jewelry manufacturing business I‘ve seen jewelry fashion trends come and go, from the heavy 14kt yellow gold “door knocker’ type earrings of the 1960’s to the current fashion trends of silver, white gold, and platinum. Platinum’s history dates back to the time of the Inca’s in the pre Columbian society of Ecuador, but was not introduced to Europe until the mid 1500’s. While first discovered in South America, today the vast majority of platinum is mined in South Africa, with substantial quantities also coming from Russia and Canada. The are even small amounts of platinum mined in the United States.

Platinum is truly a rare metal with less that 2 ½ tons of the metal being produced worldwide each year, and per onze or unit it has always been the most expensive of the three precious metals. By comparison the United States alone produces more than 1200 tons of silver yearly. Outside of its use in the jewelry industry, platinum has a variety of other uses, not the least of which is in the automobile industry as a catalyst used in the assembly of catalytic converters. Platinum is also used in the manufacture of various electronics, medicines, and auto parts.

While today’s fashion trends favor a white metal over yellow, platinum has many other unique qualities which make it ideal for use in the jewelry industry. Platinum is an extremely dense metal and per unit is twice the weight of gold. This make a platinum piece of jewelry twice as heavy as the same piece in either white or yellow gold. Because of the denseness of the metal it will usually wear better and last longer. It is an extremely strong metal and platinum pieces can be fashioned more delicately and intricately than gold pieces with no fear of compromising the integrity or strength of the jewelry. For example, the screw posts on a pair of platinum earrings will maintain the screw thread longer than those on the same gold posts.

There is also a much greater percentage of platinum in a platinum piece of jewelry that gold in a gold piece of jewelry. Traditionally platinum jewelry is 90 to 95% platinum with 5 to 10% alloy added to the platinum to make it easier to fabricate and work with. Even 18kt gold, on the other hand is only 75% gold, with the remaining 25% a mixture of different alloys which are used for the same purpose in addition to turning yellow gold to white gold. Because Platinum is naturally a silvery white metal and does not oxidize or change color it will retain its luster for a very long time. All white gold on the other hand is plated with a metal called rhodium at the time of its manufacture and will need to be replated from time to time.

Jewelry trends do come and go, but platinum has always been used in the most highly fashioned and expensive pieces of jewelry. Whether from Harry Winston or Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels or Cartier, platinum has always held a special place for designers in their creation of some of the worlds most spectacular pieces of jewelry. Platinum jewelry when combined with either diamonds or colored stones give thoses stones added importance and luster due to the reflective qualities of the metal. Platinum brings out the specialness of each stone by focusing your attention to the sparkle of a white diamond in a perfectly white metal. It enhances the color of any stone, by offering a stark contrast with its own luster of pure platinum. Jewelry made from platinum will offer its owner a lifetime of use and pleasure and provide an heirloom worth passing to the next generation.

The Nature of Gold

One of the most interesting things about gold is its number of uses. Certainly, gold has been and is used in jewelry. It has been widely used as actual money in the form of coins or as the standard for which paper money has been valued. It is also used in dentistry and medicine. As an excellent conductor of electricity, it has been used as wire and in the connectors of wires in everything from audio and video cables to the contacts in the production of computers and jet engines. Gold has uses in photography, medicine, ceramics, the production of colored glass as well as being used as a protective coating on satellites and in jet fighter planes.

Naturally the use of gold that we are most familiar with is that of jewelry. In that capacity, gold has been used as an ornament or piece of jewelry as far back as 2600BC. Because it is highly malleable it is relatively easy to work with and can be shaped into an infinite variety of shapes and designs. Pure gold, of course, is called 24karat, kt or fine gold. As fine gold it is generally used in the stamping and production of gold coins, but is too soft to use in the fabrication of jewelry. In this use it is mixed with other metals, called alloys, which change its hardness, give it a variety of colors and by changing its melting point allows it to be mixed with, welded to and altered or worked on in a variety of ways. When mixed with these alloys, the amount of fine gold used in any one piece of jewelry is reduced. This proportion of fine gold to alloy gives the jewelry its designation as either 10,14,18 or 22kt.

The largest consumer of gold in the world, India, produces most of their jewelry in 22kt. Most jewelry in the United States is produced in either 10,14,or 18kt gold. As a percentage of fine gold 22kt is .916%, 18kt .75%, 14kt. .583% and 10kt .416%. Depending on its country of origin a piece of jewelry may be stamped either the number percentage or the Kt. as in .75 or .75kt in instead of 18kt. Today, laws all over the world require that all gold manufactured as jewelry must be stamped to reflect its true karat. Thus all gold used in the manufacture of jewelry must be “plumb gold”, meaning that the gold stamp must reflect the actual gold content in the ring. As an example, all gold stamped 18kt must be at least .75% fine gold or 24kt gold. Gold imported into the United States if tested by US Customs and found not to be “plumb is usually seized and the manufacturer fined and or restricted from importing more jewelry into the United States. A jewelry manufacturer in the United States found to be producing jewelry not within these guidelines is usually fined, as it is a crime.

Among the most common alloys used in the fabrication of gold for jewelry are silver, copper and brass. Nickel was also used for many years especially in the production of white gold, but due to its toxicity it has been mostly replaced with a variety of white metals like antimony, tin and zinc. The percentages of each of these metals used in the alloy when combined with fine gold give the different karat gold’s their distinctive color. They are, for example what makes 18kt gold look different from 14kt gold and what gives the jewelry industry the ability to create a “white” gold from a metal which, in its natural state, is quite yellow.

Since almost the beginning of time, from Egypt to Rome and throughout the rest of the world, gold has been prized and valued for its beauty. While it has many uses in industry, electronics and medicine, it is the feel and look of gold worn or given to someone which has given the world its greatest pleasure.

A Symbol of MiYama Ryu JuJutsu

In 1965, shortly after I began taking classes in MiYama Ryu Jujutsu, then Professor Pereira (He was Sensei or Professor Pereira from the opening of the school in 1960 until 1973 when he became Shinan) asked my father to help him remake a ring that he wore and that come into disrepair. My father was a jeweler and a model maker and so about a month later, he returned a brand new model of that ring to the Professor, as he liked to be called and charged him $35.00. I still have the model for that original ring, a man’s gold black enameled signet ring with the Japanese kanji for the word “Bushi” or samurai cut into the center of the ring. That ring became a very important symbol in the history of Mi Yama Ryu, because Shinan allowed only those students that achieved a Black Belt in Mi Yama Ryu JuJutsu to purchase and wear that ring. Over the years my father made many rings and pendants for students of Mi Yama Ryu JuJutsu, and after my father’s retirement, so have I.

Throughout the years I have come to appreciate the beauty and symmetry of Japanese calligraphy and have made and designed many different kinds of jewelry using the various ways of writing Japanese kanji. Because a single kanji may be used to write one or more different words, each word, a combination of several kanji tell a story or invoke an image to the reader. Even the way the letter or kanji is written can evoke and sense of strength or boldness, softness or continuity.

The making of jewelry is actually not that different and uses many of the skills that one learns through their study of the martial arts. It takes a good deal of time to learn the physical skills needed in the manufacture of a piece of jewelry. How to use and handle the tools you need, to control them in your hands and guide them to do what you wish them to do is not so unlike learning how to use any weapon a sword or a jo for example. Your ability to perfect these physical skills requires more than time, it requires patience and focus, the staying power needed to learn a new technique or a new way of moving. Persistence and repetition make a better jeweler as they do a better martial artist

Having learned these skills over time and with the help a good teacher you eventually begin to feel energized by new projects, new designs or in the case of martial arts new challenges and new techniques. You begin to stretch your skills to adapt them to these new challenges and you build on the skills you have already learned to create more intricate designs, to learn higher level techniques. As a jeweler you work more efficiently, you can begin to visualize your designs long before they are ever completed, as martial artists our movements become more polished more subtle. Our technique has gotten better.

While we all strive to become the best at what we do, and as perfection is not truly possible, I have found that my two “arts”, that of MiYama Ryu JuJutsu and the art of making and designing jewelry, have complemented each other and the skills learned in each discipline has enhanced my ability to practice and learn the other. For that I will eternally be grateful to my father, who was the best of teachers and to Shinan Pereira who comes in a really close second.

A Primer in Jewelry Design and Manufacture

I suppose I have been around the jewelry business my whole life. My father learned to be a jeweler after returning from World War II as part of the G I Bill. After some years learning his trade as an apprentice, he began to stretch his skills designing and making or manufacturing his own creations. He built a small shop in the basement of our house where he was always at his workbench “tinkering” with a new model or design. I guess, “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree”, because my workbench looks just like his did when I’m making something new. In fact I still use many of the same tools my father did when he fashioned Shinan Pereira’s original “ Bushi “ ring. Since most have never been inside a jewelry factory or watched someone make the original model for a piece of jewelry I thought it might be interesting to explain what goes into making a ring like Shinan’s or, for that matter, any piece of jewelry.

Naturally, when you begin to create a new piece of jewelry you first must decide on the design. Whether you’re making a wedding band, a diamond engagement ring or in this case a man’s enameled gold ring the process is the same. After deciding on the design the next part of the process revolves around deciding the size and physical dimensions of your piece of jewelry. This involves more than deciding what the finger size is, in the case of a ring, but more about how physically large or small the piece will actually be. This is important for a number of reasons. First, the jewelry has to be visually attractive, so every part of the design has to be in proportion to every other part of the design. Second, if the design uses any kind of stones, like diamonds for example, the model must be made in proportion to the sizes of the stones used giving the setter a thick enough prong or heavy enough metal for him to set or secure the stone in the jewelry. Thirdly, the physical size of the piece, in large part, determines what the piece will weigh. Since the metals used in the jewelry process are sold by weight, a heavier piece of jewelry cost more than a light piece of jewelry. Finally, when you begin to design a new piece of jewelry, you want it to last. If you make it correctly, proportionately, and heavy enough to withstand the daily wear and tear that a piece of jewelry receives, giving the setter to enough space to put the stones and enough metal to secure them, then your design and piece of jewelry will give its owner years of fond memories.

In the case of Shinan’s ring, after the design was made, the type of metal was chosen, in this case 14kt yellow enamel gold and it was casted, basically turning his design into a piece of metal. Some basic jewelry work, cleaning and polishing was done to the ring to prepare it to be enameled. Enameling is the process which creates the black surface around the Japanese “Bushi” kanji letters in the center of the ring. Basically there are two types of enameling, hard and soft. Soft enamel is painted on the surface of the piece much in the same way you would apply nail polish to you nails and as nail polish it dries under a heat lamp or naturally over time. Hard enamel is a completely different process. Hard enamel begins as a crystal which is made into a powder. The powder is then applied to the surface you wish to enamel and then baked in an oven for several hours at between 1300 to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. Most often several layers of this powder needs to be applied and the piece is placed back in the oven for additional time. The piece is then removed from the oven, allowed to cool, and repolished. It is now finished.