“How do I clean my Jewelry?”
Jewelry cleaning is a two phase process that can be done at home or professionally by a jeweler.
Jewelry cleaning is analogous to washing and waxing a car. First you wash the item(s) and then you polish. There is not a product on the market that will do both.
Mr. Clean is our favorite jewelry cleaner (It’s not just for floors). Mr Clean is a very gentle and forgiving cleaning solvent.
It does have to be the original yellow or “Summer Citrus” Mr. Clean. The other Mr. Clean solutions will cause problems and don’t work as well in this case.
This is also a great time to inspect the settings on jewelry for wear and for loose stones.
You soak your jewelry in a cup of pure or diluted Mr. Clean for 10 to 15 minutes and then scrub thoroughly with a tooth brush and rinse with clean water. If there is still an accumulation on the stones, repeat. Now you can move on to polishing.
Do Not soak pearl or bead strands, costume jewelry with glass stones, watches, or any inlayed stone pieces (i.e. turquoise, sugilite, etc.)
You can ease the labor in this process by using a home ultrasonic. We prefer the “Sparkle Spa” by Gem Oro, which retails for about $75.00.
Other Cleaning Products
Arm and Hammer Baking Soda is an extremely mild cleanser and even works as a preliminary polishing agent. This is good for gold filled items and items you’re not sure about as far as metal content goes.
Mix the baking soda with water, so that the mixture is “pasty”, and then scrub with a tooth brush and rinse. If the metal starts to change to a different color, STOP, you have scrubbed too hard and broken through the surface plating.
Baking Powder is a great mild abrasive that is perfect for liquid silver or other items that you don’t want to get wet. Simply sprinkle some in the palm of your hand and work rub gently) the necklace or item. Then shake off.
Even Tooth Paste can be used as a mild abrasive for polishing; we don’t recommend this since there are so many additives in tooth pastes that it is possible to have a minor reaction with some metals.
Jewelry Polishing
Now we’re going to “wax the car”, or polish our jewelry once it has been thoroughly cleaned. There are many types of polishing cloths that are perfect for home polishing.
Remember, when polishing, you are actually removing a very small amount of surface material. The more you polish, the more metal you remove.
We prefer “Shino” Polishing Cloths, they will polish gold, silver, and even do a reasonable job on brass. Simply rub the item with the cloth or gently pull (as with chains) through the cloth. You will easily see your jewelry gain its sheen back as you work the article.
For gold filled products, a gentle quick rub or pull is adequate.
Be careful around stones, some softer stones like emeralds and tanzanite can be abraded and lose their polish if a cloth or even the other listed polishing compounds are vigorously applied.
Jewelry stores speed up the process by using a mechanical polisher and use different polishing compounds depending on the metal type.
Once you have polished your jewelry scrub thoroughly again and rinse.
Excess polish and stubborn accumulations can be removed using pressurized steam. There are a few affordable home steamers, again care must be taken depending on the type of jewelry and stones. We recommend the Gem Oro “Brilliant Spa” that usually retails for about $125.00.