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Jewelry information

At ICON we buy our jewelry only from the worlds top body jewelry manufacturers. The manufacturers we buy from only use permanent implant grade materials such as 316LVM steel per ASTM-F-138 stainless steel, 6AL/4V ELI Titanium per ASTM-F-136, 14k or 18k gold, and platinum. What this means is that you should not have a reaction to any of our metal jewelry.

To kind of break down what all this means without getting too boring and complicated 316 is a grade of steel that can be made into permanent implant grade stainless steel. L means low carbon and VM stands for Vacuum melted. Low carbon steel is more body neutral than a high carbon steel, and vacuum melted means that there are fewer impurities and a higher level of control over the alloy due to no outside contamination. All of this is fine and good, but the number that's most important is the ASTM number. ASTM stands for the American Society for Testing Materials. The ASTM tests materials to see if they meet the specifications for which they are being used. Not all 316LVM steel meets the requirements for ASTM-F-138 steel. The steel mill should send to the manufacturer a sheet called a mill certification sheet or metal certification sheet. That company should have that on file and be able to send a copy of it to a shop that buys their jewelry. If a shop does not ask for this sheet or if the company won't send it, you as a customer cannot be sure of what you are buying. We keep our jewelry manufacturer's mill certification sheets on file and update them every year or so. If you would like to see our certification sheets feel free to ask for them.

Titanium is used in many things we use today. One of the most relevant to what we do is when titanium is used in surgical implants. The alloy of titanium we use is 6AL/4V ELI per ASTM-F-136. Just like steel, the titanium we use is an alloy of different materials. The reason for not using commercially pure titanium is that titanium is actually very soft, too soft to use in most body jewelry applications. There are a few cases in which the softness of commercially purt titanium are beneficial. There are advantages and disadvantages of using titanium over steel. The first advantage is weight. Titanium weighs about 1/3 the weight of steel so for those larger gauge pieces, titanium would be a much better choice. The 2nd advantage is that titanium can be colored by a process called anodization. During the anodization process, the metal is placed in a chemical bath and has an electrical current run through it. This grows the titanium oxide layer that reflects back the color that you see. The titanium oxide layer is not a coating or a dye, it will not flake off. It will however fade or discolor over time depending on where the jewelry is worn. Some will say that titanium is more bio compatible than implant grade steel, but the data to back that up isn't available. One disadvantage of titanium is that the implant grade designation can be a little harder to bend for insertion an removal. Another is that it is harder to polish which means unless it is purchased from a quality manufacturer there could be some pitting in it.

Some people will say that they are allergic to nickle so they can't wear any jewelry that has nickle in it. Does permanent implant grade steel have nickle in it? Yes. The reason that it is important that jewely meets the ASTM standard for implant grade steel is that the alloys put into the metal form an oxide layer called chromium oxide when exposed to the air. This chromium oxide layer is a self regenerating layer that prevents the nickle from coming into contact and reacting with skin. When we think of oxide layer usually the first thing that will come into mind would be rust. Rust is an oxide layer, but it is iron oxide. Chromium oxide is a layer of oxidization that happens to be very biocompatible meaning that very few if any people will have a reacting to it.

The materials the jewelry is made of is very important, but just as important, if not more so, is the polish on the jewelry. This is the step that some companies will cut corners on. The first step in the polishing process (and the last for some companies) is to run the jewelry through a tumbler. The part of the process should remove any tool marks or large blemishes caused by the manufacturing process. Tumbling does not remove all the tiny little scratches or "pitting" in the jewelry. When the metal is shipped to a jewelry manufacturer it is unfinished. They have poured molten steel into a mold, then cut, shaped, stretched, or flattened the metal to get it into whatever shape and/or size is required. This process leaves the surface of the metal very rough, even tumbling can't get rid of all the small pits and imperfections. Jewelry that has only been tumbled usually has a slightly darker gray coloring. It's hard to tell when it's by itself but if you hold it next to a piece of jewelry that's been hand polished you can definitely tell a difference. The process of hand polishing is exactly how it sounds. Some person stands in front of a polishing wheel and by hand runs the jewelry under the wheel. The polishing wheel spins very very fast and uses a polishing compound to remove any pitting and scratches from the jewelry. This process does add quite a bit to the cost of manufacturing the jewelry which is why companies that want to compete solely on price usually knock out this process. One trick to making jewelry look nice initially without hand polishing is to leave the polishing compound on the jewelry. The compound fills in any imperfections. Eventually through wear, this compound falls out of these imperfections and causes the jewelry to look dull. This is bad in 2 ways: first is that eventually the jewelry will take on a dull gray look. Secondly, is that the polishing compound is made of a conjealed animal fat and an abraisive. Obviously animal fat and an abraisive can irritate a piercing especially a fresh one. High quality jewelry manufacturers will run jewelry through a heated ultrasonic to remove any left over compound, and a few even use a high pressure steam after the ultrasonic to be positive there is no compound left on the jewelry. The end result is a mirror finish that will last as long as you wear it.

The last important topic is threading. Threading means anything that has to be screwed on and off such as the balls on a barbell. There are 2 types of threading internal and external. External is the most common type of threading and is the cheapes to make. External threading means that the threads are on the bar and the bar screws into a hole in the ball. There are several problems with this design such as when you put the bar into a fresh piercing it can be extrememly uncomfortable depending on the size of threads. Another problem is that either there may not be enough threads to keep the ball on securely, or there may be too many threads which will stick out some from under the ball and irritate a piercing. Even on a healed piercing, soem threads have been known to cut and reopen even a well healed piercing. Another common problem is that if you lose a ball, there are so many manufacturers using this threading that there is no standard thread pattern. This means that finding a replacement ball is nearly impossible and many places will not sell only a replacement so you have to buy another piece of jewelry. Internally threaded jewelry means that the ball has the threads on it and that part screws into the bar. This design allows the jewelry to be put in without moving any threads through the piercing. It also means that the threads will not be too long or the ball wouldn't screw onto the bar and usually this type of jewelry not only has more threads to hold the end on better, but they usually have some sort of locking design that will keep the end from falling off easily. Internal threading isn't without some disadvantage some will say that the post will contain bacteria in a dark moist environment that will allow it to proliferate. This is a possibility, but it is also possible that the ball with a hole in it will do the same thing. Most internally threaded jewelry is a standard thread pattern so no matter the manufacturer, any internally threaded end should fit onto any internally threaded bar although there will always be a few exceptions.

By now you are probably really bored if you've made it through all this, but there is one more thing to consider when buying body jewelry and that is jewelry with stones in it. Most companies using cheaper quality materials and/or manufacturing processes will also cut corners with their stones and stone setting. There are many companies out there that use either glass foil backed or even plastic stones in their gemstone jewelry. This makes for a boring and cheap looking stone. Our manufacturers use either synthetic lab grown gemstones or at very minumum swarovski crystal. The process of setting the stone is very important. Lower quality manuracturers will glue in stones where all of our gemstone jewelry is hand set. We guarantee that the stone will not fall out or we will replace it for you free of charge.

Thank you for taking the time to read all this. Our jewelry is very important to us. We believe in only providing the very best for our customers. It's more expensive, but we feel you are worth it.