Pots on the shelf
On the workshop shelf are several pots: 9ct yellow, 18ct yellow, 18ct white, platinum, silver. Filings from the bench peg, sprues from castings, offcuts of wire and sheet, bits of broken chain bought over the counter. Some labels are faded. One pot says 'mixed?'.
Every few months, the owner sends a lot to the refiner. It goes off with a rough idea of what is inside. The settlement comes back weeks later, and it is hard to tell whether it matches what went in, because nobody recorded what went in.
Meanwhile, bench sweeps, polishing dust and the old carpet under the bench are another source of metal that nobody thinks about until the workshop is refitted.
Why workshop metal is untracked
Scrap is a by-product, so it gets by-product attention. Nobody weighs filings every day. Customer old gold used in a remodel and gold bought over the counter end up in the same pot as bench scrap, even though they have different records attached.
Refiner paperwork arrives in a format that suits the refiner: lot numbers, assay results, charges. Matching it to your own records is hard when your own records are a pencil note.
And metal is expensive. Small, regular losses that nobody measures add up to a real cost over a year, while a refiner settlement you cannot check is simply accepted.
What untracked scrap costs
| Gap | Consequence |
|---|---|
| No weights recorded going in | Refiner settlements accepted without checking |
| Mixed sources in one pot | Customer and bought-in gold not traced |
| Fineness guessed | Lots less valuable than they could be when sorted |
| No view of metal use | Workshop losses invisible |
| Sweeps ignored | Metal thrown away in dust and polishing waste |
How much metal loss is normal for your work is a professional judgement. The point is that you cannot judge what you do not measure.
Sorting matters more than most workshops allow for. Mixed carats in one pot are usually valued by the refiner at the lowest reliable fineness, which means higher carat scrap earns less than it could. Keeping pots separate is easy in principle, but in a busy week the offcut goes in whichever pot is nearest. A labelled lot with a record of each addition makes the right pot the easy choice.
How we track metal from bench to refiner
- Each scrap pot becomes a lot in the system with its metal and fineness. A label printed with a lot number replaces the pencil note.
- Additions are weighed and logged with their source: bench scrap, customer old gold (linked to the commission), bought-in scrap (linked to the purchase record), or sweeps.
- When a lot is sent to the refiner, the final weight, the lot's history and the courier details are recorded, and a dispatch sheet is produced to go with it.
- The refiner's settlement is entered or read from their statement, and compared with what you sent, with the difference shown clearly.
- Metal issued to the bench for jobs can be logged too, so you can compare metal issued with metal in the finished pieces and scrap returned.
- A simple report shows scrap held by metal, lots sent and settled, and trends over time.
Workshops that already use a metal ledger in their jewellery software can keep it. We connect or extend what is there instead of replacing it.
A workshop that knows where its metal went
Scrap pots are labelled and logged. When a lot goes to the refiner, you know what is in it. When the settlement comes back, you can see whether it looks right, and question it if not.
- Every scrap lot recorded by metal, weight and source
- Customer and bought-in metal kept traceable
- Refiner settlements checked against what was sent
- A clearer picture of metal used in the workshop
Signs your scrap metal needs records
- Scrap pots are labelled by hand, if at all.
- Lots go to the refiner without a recorded weight.
- You could not say whether the last settlement was right.
- Customer old gold and bench scrap end up in the same pot.
- Bench sweeps and polishing waste are thrown away.