Goldsmith - Current Situation

Current Situation

A goldsmith might have a wide array of skills and knowledge at their disposal. Gold, being the most malleable metal of all, offers unique opportunities for the worker. In today's world a wide variety of other metals, especially platinum alloys, may also be used extensively. 24 Carat is pure gold, and was historically known as fine gold. However, 24 Carat gold is rarely used, because it is so soft, so it is usually alloyed to make it stronger and create different colors; goldsmiths may have some skill in that process. Then the gold may be cast into some item, usually with the lost wax casting process, or it may be used to fabricate the work directly in metal.

In the latter case, the goldsmith will use a variety of tools and machinery, including the rolling mill, the drawplate, and perhaps swage blocks and other forming tools to make the metal into shapes needed to build the intended piece. Then parts are fabricated through a wide variety of processes and assembled by soldering. It is a testament to the history and evolution of the trade that those skills have reached an extremely high level of attainment and skill over time. A fine goldsmith can and will work to a tolerance approaching that of precision machinery, but largely using only his eyes and hand tools. Quite often the goldsmith's job involves the making of mountings for gemstones, in which case they are often referred to as jewelers.

'Jeweller', however, is a term mostly reserved for a person who deals in jewellery (buys and sells) and not to be confused with a goldsmith, silversmith, gemologist, diamond cutter and diamond setters. A 'jobbing jeweller' is the term for a jeweller who undertakes a small basic amount of jewellery repair and alteration.