I’m going to write a treatise titled “gemstones, precious and otherwise”, so I won’t dwell on this subject now, but rather go back to the subject mentioned in the header of this column.

SALAUROUS™ will revolutionize the metal industry.  According to the United States government, the only requirement for a metal to qualify for the term “gold-filled” is for the qualifying metal to contain no less than 1/20 of its total weight in karat gold.  In the United States, any karat amount less than 10K is not considered karat gold.  Notwithstanding the above, certain manufacturers of gold have grouped together, forming the ‘Goldfilled Manufacturers Association’ and have spent considerable time and monies “educating” both the trade and the public that any jewelry or novelty item not made with material (sheet, wire or tube) provided by one of their member firms is not “gold-filled”.  The Goldfilled Manufacturers Association’s materials are either klad (mechanically bound under pressure) or in the case of some chains, heavily plated.

This is a ‘play on words’ and NOT fair to either the industry or the public.  While we would have no qualms with either the term “klad” as Kremitz® has used for years, or even “RGP” which stand for ‘rolled gold plating’ (kiddingly referred to as ‘real good plating’) we do feel that “they” are stretching the term “gold-filled”.  The average lay-person would presume when seeing or hearing the term “gold-filled” that the metal is filled with gold.  Not so!  However, SALAUROUS™ is!

The “gold-filled” material being manufactured by the Goldfilled Manufacturers Association is not “universal”.  By usage of the word “universal”, we mean that ‘their’ material CANNOT be cased in dimensional form (buckles, pendants, earrings, etc.) after it has been melted.  SALAUROUS™ IS “UNIVERSAL”!  Our MATERIAL is not only castable, but can be continually cast in sheet form and then milled to a precise thickness for stamping purposes or to be utilized in construction pieces.  Furthermore, the material manufactured by the various members of the Goldfilled Manufacturers Association will lose a portion of its gold during polishing causing its relationship with the base metal to change percentage.  SALAUROUS™ can be polished with NO change in the percentage of gold to the other alloys.

The material being manufactured by the members of the Goldfilled Manufacturers Association, when in sheet form and punched out for small, light-weight pendants or earrings, has no gold whatsoever on the edges of the punched out items.

SALAUROUS™ will have the same amount of gold throughout, as it is FILLED with a percentage of karat gold, not klad or plated, even after punching.

We feel SALAUROUS™ will revolutionize the meaning of the term “gold-filled”.

SALA is an acronym:  SA from Sam and LA from Lax; AU is the atomic symbol for gold, and Aurous means ‘gold throughout the mass’.