KNow your Damascus Steel and Mokume Gane rings maker

It is an unfortunate reality of being the designer and maker of some of the most unique Damascus Steel and Mokume Gane rings in the world, that our photos and copyrighted materials are often stolen and used to sell counterfeit “STEVEN JACOB” wedding bands. While we do our best to mitigate these infractions, we have limited time and resources to chase these violators down and many are made by companies outside of the United States and pretty much beyond reach. We have created this page to help you identify the authenticity of the ring you plan to purchase. We hope this will clear up any confusion about where a true STEVEN JACOB ring can be purchased and what it means if you see one of our products somewhere else. A number of our previous clients have been duped by these schemes and we hope this information may save others from falling into the same trap.

Where to buy a Steven Jacob RIng?

We do not wholesale or sell our creations through any other reseller. Therefore, the only places you can purchase authentic STEVEN JACOB products are our showroom in Colorado, our website - www.mokume.com and our Etsy shop @StevenJacobJewelry. If you see photos of our rings for sale anywhere else you can be sure that they are being used in a bait and switch fraud in which the buyer orders a ring from photos of one of our original designs, but receives an inferior imitation.

How to identify a fake

  1. Price

    We offer premium quality, handcrafted, wedding rings and jewelry exclusively designed and made by us in the USA. If the price you see seems too good to believe, it is!

  2. Reviews

    Read the reviews on the site. You can be an excellent judge of an authentic review or a fabricated one. If you have questions about the accuracy of the reviews listed on a site, google the site name to see what people are saying about that website on reddit or other forums.

  3. Know your maker

    If your intention is to buy a Damascus Steel or Mokume Gane ring, handcrafted especially for you, you should be able to call and speak directly with that maker. If you cannot get the actual maker on the phone, you can be sure that the ring you are looking at is made in a factory.

  4. Return Address

    If the ring you purchased was shipped directly from China or Pakistan you can be certain it is a counterfeit. We make and ship everything in the USA. Our shipping address is:

    STEVEN JACOB

    721 Confidence Dr. Unit 1

    Longmont, CO 80504

  5. LOgo

    Every STEVEN JACOB product is engraved with our logo. If you purchase what you think is a STEVEN JACOB ring and it arrives without our logo, you can be certain it’s a fake. Below is a close up of our logo mark on a ring.

Intellectual property theft

All of the photos and copyrighted content on this website are the exclusive property of STEVEN JACOB. While we have not authorized the use of these images, that has not stoped unscrupulous websites from using them for their own purposes. Below is an example of what this looks like. Full disclosure: we have attempted to get these images removed from this site, but have not been able to do so.

Proprietary designs

We are the exclusive maker of the designs and patterns you see on our rings. These patterns are more unique and sophisticated than most because of the complex, proprietary forging technology we use to produce our Mokume and Damascus Steel.

There is currently a major US wedding band manufacturer that has stolen one of our copyrighted patterns and uses it to laser engrave a line of rings they produce to create a kind of fake Damascus or "Faux-kume". While we undeniably have the legal grounds to sue this company, they are a major player with deep pockets who could certainly bury us in legal bills if we tried. While this type of theft is not as explicit as stealing our own ring images, it is still wrong, illegal and unethical. We brought these concerns directly to the attention of the company’s president months ago, but they continue to use our unique design as their own.

The image on the left is an authentic STEVEN JACOB Damascus Steel and Yellow Gold Star Pattern Ring. The image on the right is the knockoff copy of this pattern laser engraved into the surface of the metal by a major American ring maker without the consent of STEVEN JACOB.

If you would like to learn more about our struggle with intellectual property theft, we have a blog post on the subject. It is a reality that innovators and creators have to deal with when selling their wares online. We constantly have to self-police online spaces for stolen images and counterfeit products.