OLD - Vogt's Glossary of Terms

14 Karat Gold, Solid:
A type of gold adornment where the entire piece is made of an alloy of 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts other metals. These metals provide color and strength that solid gold, or 24 karat, does not have.

14 Karat Gold Fill:
A type of gold adornment whereby a core of nonprecious metal is mechanically bonded to, and blanketed by a layer of 14 karat gold. This gives the appearance of 14 karat gold, but a significant cost savings.

Solid Sterling Silver:
An alloy of silver and nonprecious metals. The international standard dictates that sterling silver must be exactly 92.5% pure silver and only sterling silver may be marked as "sterling" or ".925."

Solid Sterling Silver Overlay:
A piece of nonprecious metal surrounded and mechanically bonded with a layer of precious sterling silver. This gives the appearance of solid sterling.

Antiqued:
A distinctive Vogt finish that adds a retro, pre-worn look to the beauty of the silver.

Casting:
Although the large majority of Vogt production is hand fabricated, some of the pieces in the "Town and Country" offerings are cast. This process, quite common in "Southwest" style of jewelry, is done in sterling silver and gold. Castings are made by forcing molten metal into molds in the shape of the finished piece and polishing by hand. While a nice smooth surface finish is created, if a pattern is not desired it must still be hand engraved.

Fine Machine Stitched:
A very intricate stitching pattern on the sides of each Vogt belt (9 stitches per inch). This stitch ads decoration and holds the belt's lining in place.

Fully Lined:
A type of high quality belt where the rough, raw, underside of the belt is covered by a separate finished piece of leather and joined with stitching. This gives the underside of a belt a smooth, finished feel. Only top quality belts are fully lined.

Hand Engraved:
An engraving process whereby an artist first traces a pattern onto a piece of silver and then carves individual lines with hand held tools to form that engraving pattern. No machines or mechanical stamps are used.

Hand Fabrication:
One of twenty-two individual steps in the construction of the Vogt belts. In this step the belt is rubbed or polished by hand and a "canvas coat" is applied.

Hand Tooled:
A leather working process whereby a decorative pattern is stamped into the leather body using only small hand held dies and tap hammers. No machines or mechanical stamps are used.

Machine Fabrication:
THIS METHOD IS NOT USED BY VOGT.  . Machine-made production pieces fall into a larger, lower prices portion of the product spectrum. Machine-made products are made with a "cookie-cutter" approach that renders every piece an exact duplicate. Every piece is just like the last one. This isn't a bad thing, since the quality of today's machine-made products is very good. However, they lack the craftsmanship and personality that you enjoy with a handmade piece. Machine-made products are typically made of nonprecious base metal covered with silver or gold plating. Plating is a finishing process since you cannot plate and then engrave, as you will cut through the plating.

Oxidized:
A process by which silver is burned and darkened with "liver of sulfur." The burned silver is still sterling, but only darker.

Top Grain Leather:
The smoother exterior side of hide. The interior of a hide is more rough and unfinished feeling.