Every piece of gold that leaves this shop carries a purity mark. In Nepal that is expressed in karat, and it is a statement about one thing only: the proportion of pure gold in the alloy. We work in two — 24K is 99.9% gold, 22K is 91.6%. That is the whole claim.
It is a useful claim. It is also routinely mistaken for a quality mark, which it is not. A badly made 22K chain and a beautifully made 22K chain carry an identical stamp. The stamp is about material. Quality is about everything that happened to the material afterwards.
What to look at instead
- The clasp. Work a clasp twenty times in the shop. If it feels vague on the twentieth, it will fail within the year.
- The join. Turn a bangle until you find where it was closed. On good work you will need good light to find it.
- The back. Finishing effort on the side nobody sees is the most reliable signal you will ever get.
- The stone seat. A stone should sit level and dead still. Any movement at all is a setting that will let go.
Finishing effort on the side nobody sees is the most reliable signal you will ever get.
On weight
Gold is sold by weight, so weight is where the temptation sits. A hollow-formed piece is not dishonest — hollow forming is a legitimate technique that makes large festive work wearable. What matters is that you are told. Ask whether a piece is solid or formed, and expect a straight answer with the gross, net and fine weights written on the tag.
Every tag in this shop carries all three, plus the making charge, separately. If a jeweller will not separate metal value from making charge, you cannot compare their price to anyone else's — which is generally the point.
Written at the bench at Sita Shree Jewellers, New Road, Kathmandu. Bring any piece — ours or not — and we will look at it with you across the counter.
