The dirtiest piece of jewelry?

[Clairitek]

The women I worked with at my graduate school research center used to give me their pieces about once a month to clean in my dinky little ultrasonic. I would get boiling water from the coffee machine and soak them, then stick them in the cleaner. They always loved handing me their pieces. The first time I cleaned everything was pretty nasty- especially the smelly ear gunk! But I doubt it was as bad as some of the stories in this thread!

I am in the process of helping a coworker sell her diamond tennis bracelet. She handed it to me pretty dirty. It definitely took some time to get all of the black crud out of the links and bits and pieces of the braclet but WOW is it an improvement! I'll admit that I was a little grossed out by the black stuff coming off of the piece, but I just kept on scrubbing like a maniac until nothing else came off.

 

[Christina...]

Okay, What I learned today from Pricescope, never clean your ring, and you may never need to change a prong, but may also get a citation from the health department!

 

[jewelerman]

Okay, What I learned today from Pricescope, never clean your ring, and you may never need to change a prong, but may also get a citation from the health department!

LoL!!!AND TRUE

 

[Pandora II]

Guys I lost my lunch. You all prompted me to post in Rockytalk for help finding a home use ultrasonic cleaner.

Can you please share here too? Come on, you created the phobic obsession I didn't have 15 minutes ago, you gotta help me deal with it.

Any good online stores with international shipping which stock excellent ultrasonic cleaners? Do you have tips on what you add with the water to make the cleaner work better? (and sometimes some cleaners die if you add certain things? I'm really not sure)

We tend to send rings for cleaning once a year or so... I'm starting to think this isn't good.

I have a small digital ultrasonic that I bought on ebay for about £20 GBP. I'd quite like a more powerful one but since I deal mainly with people's coloured stones I'm a bit wary.

My jewellery cleaning techniques:

1) Bowl of hot water with dishsoap - soak for 10 minutes.
2) Baby toothbrush + dishsoap - scrub inside and out (being careful with prongs, pave etc)
3) Rinse - check with loupe
4) Paintbrush + dishsoap - work into all the tiny bits of the setting and the backs of stones
5) Rinse - check with loupe
6) Repeat steps 2-5 until all major gunk gone under loupe.
7) If there are still major areas then fray the end of a toothpick and work it round all the bits of the setting. Undersides of stones, especially diamonds as they attract grease, are the worst parts normally.
Rinse
9) Put in ultrasonic - I use hot water (hotter than warm but not ouch hot) and a few sprays of windex or finish (the stuff you put in the dishwasher)
10) Rinse - check with loupe.
11) Either repeat until clean or dry with lint-free cloth.
12) Return and lecture owner.

Before using an ultrasonic - check that stones can go in it (no emeralds for example). Also check coloured stones for inclusions as some could increase under ultrasonic cleaning.

Before using jewellery cleaner with ammonia check the metal and stones are suitable.