justme1
Shiny_Rock
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Windex Vinegar
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somethingshiny
Ideal_Rock
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sukiisukii
Shiny_Rock
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mercoledi
Ideal_Rock
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This thread has a number of home remedies in it. SomethingShinyI believe toothpaste isn't great for jewelry, it can be too abrasive. Most of us have used it in a pinch, but I don't think it's recommended for every day.
Ammonia can remove the rhodium plating from white gold. It certainly took it off of my ring
.
There was another recipe posted by one of the gem experts in Colored Stones recently but I can't find it now
.
ETA: found it!
Ammonia can remove the rhodium plating from white gold. It certainly took it off of my ring
There was another recipe posted by one of the gem experts in Colored Stones recently but I can't find it now
ETA: found it!
niceice
Brilliant_Rock
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Vinegar is an ACID, please do not use it to clean your jewelry. While it may not hurt the gold or platinum, it will leach the other alloys mixed with those metals out of your ring!
Ammonia needs to be cut with water! Like 50% ammonia / 50% warm water, notice that I did not say HOT. Do not use an ammonia based cleaning solution to clean gems which are soft, porous, or dyed because it will damage those gems. So no pearls, opal, jade, turquoise, tanzanite, emeralds, onyx, malachite, etc. Let your jewelry soak for a few minutes in the solution, close the sink trap, scrub LIGHTLY around the prongs with a SOFT bristle children''s toothbrush, hold the ring with a pair of tweezers and rinse the ring under warm running water - I like to place the jewelry in a wire mesh tea strainer for this last part so that the strainer may catch any diamonds which might be knocked out during the cleaning process - for those of you with pave jewelry, remember that tiny diamonds are held in place by tiny prongs, you need to be gentle with them.
True (Horror) Story: a few years ago one of our clients walked into the store very agitated because the ring which she had purchased from us several years before had become brittle and was falling apart (literally). We eventually discovered that she was in the habit of boiling the ring once a week in a pot that contained a mixture of vinegar and water. The combination of the vinegar (acid), heat, and gold (which is a mixture of gold, silver, copper) creates, what class? That''s right, a redox reaction
The premise behind boiling the ring in vinegar was developed quite simply... She liked to use vinegar and water to clean the windows in her house and diamonds are clear like glass, so... And she noticed that we use an ultra sonic that is boiling temperature in our store to soak (diamond, ruby, sapphire) jewelry as part of our cleaning process and figured out how she could "duplicate the process" at home with unfortunate consequences. I suppose that the concept of using toothpaste to clean jewelry developed in much the same way, we use toothpaste to clean our teeth, so why not our jewelry? Toothpaste contains tiny particles which are abrasive and they will tear up your gold jewelry over time, dirt and grime get caught in the scratches, part of this muck will be the fatty acids contained in our skin, the fatty acids will react with the alloys mixed with the gold, this in turn will further react with the acids released by our skin, this will result in the skin beneath and around the ring turning black, you''ll get mad at your jeweler for selling you a cheap gold ring
and he''ll tell you that you should have bought platinum because platinum is purer than gold and clearly you''re too acidic to wear gold
but he probably won''t take the time to explain why the gold jewelry turned your ring black
and you''ll never think to mention that you like to clean your ring while you brush your teeth because it saves time and is a good way to recycle the toothpaste which would otherwise be wasted as it is flushed down the drain, used only once
I might be going to hell for that last part
Ammonia needs to be cut with water! Like 50% ammonia / 50% warm water, notice that I did not say HOT. Do not use an ammonia based cleaning solution to clean gems which are soft, porous, or dyed because it will damage those gems. So no pearls, opal, jade, turquoise, tanzanite, emeralds, onyx, malachite, etc. Let your jewelry soak for a few minutes in the solution, close the sink trap, scrub LIGHTLY around the prongs with a SOFT bristle children''s toothbrush, hold the ring with a pair of tweezers and rinse the ring under warm running water - I like to place the jewelry in a wire mesh tea strainer for this last part so that the strainer may catch any diamonds which might be knocked out during the cleaning process - for those of you with pave jewelry, remember that tiny diamonds are held in place by tiny prongs, you need to be gentle with them.
True (Horror) Story: a few years ago one of our clients walked into the store very agitated because the ring which she had purchased from us several years before had become brittle and was falling apart (literally). We eventually discovered that she was in the habit of boiling the ring once a week in a pot that contained a mixture of vinegar and water. The combination of the vinegar (acid), heat, and gold (which is a mixture of gold, silver, copper) creates, what class? That''s right, a redox reaction
The premise behind boiling the ring in vinegar was developed quite simply... She liked to use vinegar and water to clean the windows in her house and diamonds are clear like glass, so... And she noticed that we use an ultra sonic that is boiling temperature in our store to soak (diamond, ruby, sapphire) jewelry as part of our cleaning process and figured out how she could "duplicate the process" at home with unfortunate consequences. I suppose that the concept of using toothpaste to clean jewelry developed in much the same way, we use toothpaste to clean our teeth, so why not our jewelry? Toothpaste contains tiny particles which are abrasive and they will tear up your gold jewelry over time, dirt and grime get caught in the scratches, part of this muck will be the fatty acids contained in our skin, the fatty acids will react with the alloys mixed with the gold, this in turn will further react with the acids released by our skin, this will result in the skin beneath and around the ring turning black, you''ll get mad at your jeweler for selling you a cheap gold ring
I might be going to hell for that last part
AggieTexan
Shiny_Rock
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Date: 6/17/2008 2:58:31 PM
Author: niceice
Vinegar is an ACID, please do not use it to clean your jewelry. While it may not hurt the gold or platinum, it will leach the other alloys mixed with those metals out of your ring!
True (Horror) Story: a few years ago one of our clients walked into the store very agitated because the ring which she had purchased from us several years before had become brittle and was falling apart (literally). We eventually discovered that she was in the habit of boiling the ring once a week in a pot that contained a mixture of vinegar and water. The combination of the vinegar (acid), heat, and gold (which is a mixture of gold, silver, copper) creates, what class? That''s right, a redox reaction
niceice
Brilliant_Rock
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The diamond actually fared fine, but the setting was breaking apart because it became brittle. There was another instance where a client broke an old fashioned mercury thermometer in her hand, the mercury coated the yellow gold turning it white and then the ring shattered the next day into several different pieces. Strange stuff happens, insure your jewelry
interesting that the mercury coated ring shattered the next day. i had an interesting mercury vs ring experience many years ago. a friend was wearing her 14k yg plain wide wedding band and had an accident at work. she was employed in a medical clinic and was cleaning up mercury, after she broke an instrument, and it covered her band. my neighbor was a chemist and he told us to boil it. we did this outside on a gas stove in a pop-up camper to avoid fumes. it came out fine and she was wearing it until she divorced.
justme1
Shiny_Rock
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Thanks for the responses...
Somethingshiny- I usually use my Jewelry Spa once a week, I was looking for a quickie in between. I *think* John Pollard had mentioned in a thread not too long ago that toothpaste was not good & he also mentioned soap with antibacterial balls in it. (please forgive me if it wasn''t you John)
Niceice- Is the plain old blue windex okay to use? I have heard to use 1/2 ammonia 1/2 water before but for some reason I''m petrified to try it
and I thought ammonia wasn’t good for platinum.
I guess I’ll be leaving the Windex for the windows…that is when I get around to doing them
... lol
What about Sukiisukii’s question about the store bought cleaners? Are they the same thing as the homemade solutions?
Somethingshiny- I usually use my Jewelry Spa once a week, I was looking for a quickie in between. I *think* John Pollard had mentioned in a thread not too long ago that toothpaste was not good & he also mentioned soap with antibacterial balls in it. (please forgive me if it wasn''t you John)
Sukiisukii- Piggie back away… I’m curious about that too.
Niceice- Is the plain old blue windex okay to use? I have heard to use 1/2 ammonia 1/2 water before but for some reason I''m petrified to try it
What about Sukiisukii’s question about the store bought cleaners? Are they the same thing as the homemade solutions?
Mercoledi- Thanks for showing me that recipe, I’d never seen it before. Have you tried it? Sorry to hear that about your ring… off to search to make sure it’s all okay now.
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I use windex and water to clean jewelry - but sadly I was using it HOT. I hope it didn''t go the same thing as boiled vinegar! I was using my US but after having a channel set diamond accent come out a few days ago I''m off that kick. I have a steam cleaner I will maybe pull out every few weeks but I am gong to just soak my jewelry in the windex mix or the pink stuff you can pick up in the stores.
Date: 6/17/2008 9:48:22 PM
Author: niceice
The diamond actually fared fine, but the setting was breaking apart because it became brittle. There was another instance where a client broke an old fashioned mercury thermometer in her hand, the mercury coated the yellow gold turning it white and then the ring shattered the next day into several different pieces. Strange stuff happens, insure your jewelry
niceice
Brilliant_Rock
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Ultra sonic cleaners are famous for shaking stones out of settings, they are most often used in a jewelry store environment as a place to soak rings and not necessarily shake them for this reason. In addition, the mechanisms of professional quality ultra sonic cleaners are much more subtle than most of the commercially available retail units that I''ve seen. If you want to use an ultra sonic cleaner, leave the vibrating mechanism off and merely swish your jewelry around in the solution gently by hand.
I''ve played around with various household cleaners and Windex is not one of my favorites because it seems to leave a little residue, I prefer old fashioned blue colored 409 (not the purple stuff or the lemon scented). There are several jewelry cleaners available in the cleaning aisle of most grocery stores and they seem to work fine as well. Once again, these types of solutions are too harsh for soft, porous or dyed gems... Speaking of which, those are usually best cleaned with a large tub of warm water and a drop or two of a gentle cleaning solution like white Ivory dish drops and when I say "only a drop or two" I really mean "only a drop or two" because you''re looking for a subtle cleaning solution.
Interesting concept about boiling off the mercury, I wouldn''t have thought of it. Chemists are good people to know, they know all kinds of cool stuff
Black Jade
Brilliant_Rock
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It''s all ammonia. Windex is ammonia cut with some water and colored blue. Formula 409 is ammonia. Top Job is also ammonia. And sudsy ammonia is ammonia.
Those jewelry cleaners you buy in department stores in fancy bottles that say not to put pearls in them are ammonia, too.
Ammonia cleans diamonds, sapphires, rubies really well. (Remember red, white and blue). It cleans gold beautifully and also platinum. Do not put sterling silver into it or you will be sorry. AS stated in another post, you also want to keep pearls, coral, emerald, etc. far away from it.
You should add a little water to the ammonia (windex and some of these other things already have water added). You can add a few drops of detergent (not soap) to it if you feel like it but I never found it makes any difference.
It just depends on whether you want to buy your ammonia cheap (store brand sudsy ammonia costs about a buck) or expensive. I don''t buy Windex anymore even for my windows--I just pour ammonia (not sudsy) into an old windex bottle and cut it with some water. It''s not blue, but it works great and the pennies I save can go towards buying jewelry! LOL
Black Jade
Those jewelry cleaners you buy in department stores in fancy bottles that say not to put pearls in them are ammonia, too.
Ammonia cleans diamonds, sapphires, rubies really well. (Remember red, white and blue). It cleans gold beautifully and also platinum. Do not put sterling silver into it or you will be sorry. AS stated in another post, you also want to keep pearls, coral, emerald, etc. far away from it.
You should add a little water to the ammonia (windex and some of these other things already have water added). You can add a few drops of detergent (not soap) to it if you feel like it but I never found it makes any difference.
It just depends on whether you want to buy your ammonia cheap (store brand sudsy ammonia costs about a buck) or expensive. I don''t buy Windex anymore even for my windows--I just pour ammonia (not sudsy) into an old windex bottle and cut it with some water. It''s not blue, but it works great and the pennies I save can go towards buying jewelry! LOL
Black Jade
Black Jade
Brilliant_Rock
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Vinegar has some uses, it can help clean SOME costume jewelry. Don''t use it on silver (tarnishes instantly) or gold (messes with the alloys slowly) but some of the old jewelry, brands like Avon and Monet, what they call ''goldtone'' or ''silvertone'', if you fill a bowl with warm water, put a little squeeze of liquid detergent (not soap) and about a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice, you can swish the jewelry around in it for a second or two, take it out and dry it with a non-fuzzy cloth, and it looks like new.
Don''t use this on plated things, or on anything with rhinestones.
Don''t use this on plated things, or on anything with rhinestones.
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Eeek. Don't use toothpaste. It won't hurt your diamond but it'll kill the polish on the metal. A toothbrush with windex, dishsoap, Mr. Clean or something similar that breaks the grease bond will do you much better.
Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver
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Past, Present, Future: The Meaning of Three-Stone Engagement Rings
Past, Present, Future: The Meaning of Three-Stone Engagement Rings - 04/14
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