Can I use my existing precious metal?
It is lovely to be able to use the precious metal from old family jewellery to create your new Legacy piece. It can often make the new piece even more meaningful and sentimentally important. It could also save having to buy new metal for the piece.
There are however very important considerations when re-using existing gold and precious metal. Indeed, not all precious metals are suitable to be melted down and made into a new piece.
Platinum
Platinum is a unique precious metal. It is considered the premium silver coloured metal to make jewellery out of. It has certain properties that make it almost impossible to melt down an existing piece and create a new item from. Platinum requires being reprocessed before being suitable to make new jewellery. This is a costly and specialised service that prohibits the use of existing platinum jewellery.
In short, the cost and quality problems associated with the use of existing platinum jewellery make it unsuitable for use in Legacy jewellery. Platinum does have a ‘scrap’ value and we would suggest using your spare platinum jewellery as a payment option toward your Legacy piece.
Gold
Gold is a different metal and can often be melted down and re-worked to make certain types of jewellery. Indeed, this practice has taken place for millennia. This process lends itself to totally handmade jewellery.
To make a quality piece of jewellery the gold needs refining and processing. This is both time consuming and costly. However, if this process is not done properly the quality of the metal will be poor, resulting in a below par standard piece of jewellery.
Legacy designs are created using hi-tech manufacturing and casting techniques. If we believe your gold is not going to be suitable or may result in a lower quality standard we will advise against using it.
Benefits of using your existing gold
It keeps the sentimental aspect of your legacy jewellery
It embraces the recycling mindset
It makes use of spare and unused jewellery
It could avoid having to pay for new gold
Possible Downsides of using your existing gold
The quality and purity of your old gold may vary, affecting your Legacy jewellery’s look and quality
It could cost more than buying new quality precious metal
It limits the potential design options
Using old precious may result in a less durable and impressive item
Unless there is a compelling reason to re-use existing precious, we suggest using new precious metal to guarantee the most beautiful and finest quality jewellery.
Alternatively, if a partcular piece of gold jewellery is of huge sentimental value to you, we would create a design that incorporates some of this gold as a feature of your new design, such as a main setting, or a central band in a triple band design.
It’s bespoke design - so anything, within reason - is possible!