Hallmarking. Assay office recommendations.

[Josephine]

I know this has been discussed before but I have been very remiss so far and not gone down the hallmarking route. I know a lot of my bracelets should be so I am trying to decide which office to go with. I was wondering about London as if I had a whole load to do I could always go up by train for the day and save myself some postage, but would welcome comments from any of you already using one of the offices about how you find them. I was slightly put off the london one as on the website it said if an item wasn't complete you had to send up all components...ok if they mean the silver but not sure I want to send them all my beads too. I will check that is what they mean but in the meantime does any one have particularly good or bad things to report about any of the Assay Offices.

[lesley]

I've heard good and bad stories about most of the offices so not much help there. I like the logic of going for the nearest though, which is what I did.

My understanding is that as long as they have all the metal components they prefer not to have loose beads. Sheffield seem happy for me to send a bag of wire labelled "wire for clasps" etc. for unfinished items.

[awrylemming]

I'm in the same position, and am also considering going to the London office - do keep us posted on what you do, I'll be watching with interest.  Unless you fancy a companion? 

[MadelineBunyan]

I use London.
I have been known to send them a reel of wire and a clasp, along with a bracelet I had already made and told them, 'this is to make one of these'

if you go up for the day, you will save yourself the postage, but you will have to pay extra for the speedy service.
still cheaper than two lots of Special delivery, usually. but if you factor in the journey, not so much!

I have sent items with glass beads on, and items without that would have had them on. as long as you send the wire/headpins you are attaching them with they don't tend to mind. not sure how this works for threaded bracelets though, what about the softflex or whatever you're using? worth asking them on the phone.

could send them a sample glass bead, I'm sure they'd understand why you wouldn't want to send them.

don't forget to sharpie on where you want it marked, they usually will follow wherever you've put your sponsors mark (if you choose to do so, you can let them keep your punch and do it for you, or you can send your punch with it for them to mark it with, I keep my own punch so I can mark under hallmarking weight items, but if I've got a tricky thing to mark, I send the punch with the item so they can do it for me)

I sharpie because then there's no doubt about it (in the past, long time ago, they marked a pair of mums earrings one on the front, and one on the back, so ruined them as earrings, not had any problems since that though) also when asked to mark in the middle of a bangle, they have ignored it and marked the end, so its best to be clear! I also find it easier for putting my own mark on with a pen mark over the part I want to stamp.

[Josephine]

Thanks Madeline, that is useful. I think you have made up my mind. Yes I know the train fare takes it over but my son is in London and there is a good chance my daughter will end up there in the next few years when she goes off to uni so combining a day out with them with a business trip (put the fare through the accounts) would be quite an attractive idea.

Might see you there Sue!

[MadelineBunyan]

yes, its alright if you were already going there!

[Josephine]

Me again. Just wondered what size punch you got Madeline. It will be mainly tags attached to  a bracelet i think. They say 1mm for large jewellery, .75 for rings and .5 for small items, not sure which would be most appropriate

[MadelineBunyan]

I have two, a curved face one that is large (1.5? or maybe 1.75) and a straight one that is 1mm I think, the design I chose only goes down to that.

I'll look up the sizes at some point.

before you go thinking how extravagant I am for having two...I got the first one 'free' cause I got it when I was a student.

I will say that I hardly use the curved one now, I was making quite a few chunky rings at the time (before I got hooked on this glass stuff y'see)

the straight 1mm one is nice, cause its not so small that you can't see it.

[Josephine]

Right, I was thinking 1mm would be nice.

[mizgeorge]

I have two registrations, at London and at Birmingham. I use London for gold, but all my silver goes to Birmingham - not least because I love the anchor mark, which is so associated with British silver jewellery. I have found the service from Birmingham much better than I got in London. It's still a direct train journey, and there's the option of popping in to the jewellery quarter at the same time! I generally hand deliver to avoid the unpacking charge, but rarely use the one day service (huge premium for that) and have things couriered back, which is usually about a tenner. It's very much worth having a big batch (50+) of pieces to do in one go as it keeps the unit cost down enormously.

I have the tiniest punch (0.5mm) because I need to be able to stamp small components and wire, which means not needing to use tags (which have to be soldered on if you go down that route) and a laser setup for larger marks). Lin Moran at Birmingham is one of the most helpful people you could wish to talk to if you have any questions.

[Josephine]

Ah, I don't really want to have to solder on tags. Will think on this a bit more. Thanks for your input George.  

I was planning on doing lots at once. Most of my bracelets have similar silver findings, beads etc so was going to pack up the silver for a whole load and then make them up at a later date, varying the glass etc.

[MadelineBunyan]

they've never told me mine have to be soldered on. haven't done any that way for a while, but then I suppose it depends what kind of tags/items

[Nick]

Hi,

I use the Birmingham Office, they are really helpful and have never had any problems with them. You get forms from them to fill in for the standards of the piece you want marking and can attach a digram as to where you want the mark to be stamped. I would certainly agree with George the larger the batch the cheaper it is. Hope this helps.

[★★Terri★★]

I use London.
I have been known to send them a reel of wire and a clasp, along with a bracelet I had already made and told them, 'this is to make one of these'

Excuse me for being dumb - but are you saying you send a bit of wire and a few headpins to the Assay Office and say "I'm gonna make a bracelet with these so could you hallmark them please"?

[MadelineBunyan]

pretty much yes.I bet they love me!

I make a bracelet, It needs hallmarking, don't have time to finish making another, so I send them all the bits, including in this case, the soldered jumpring that I use for a clasp ring,and all other parts for the clasp etc, and got them to mark the bracelet I'd already done, and the ring for the one I will make out of the rest of the wire.

as long as all the metal I'm going to be using is there so they can test it and make sure its proper they don't seem to mind!

(you are allowed to add a teeny bit more, say, the solder for attaching the clasp, or the odd jumpring, can't remember what the numbers are offhand)