Don’t Mix Gold Jewelry With Chlorine Bleach!!

Many people do not know this judging from the amount of damaged jewelry I have seen come through my shop over the years. Bleach may seem like a good jewelry cleaner but it will RUIN your gold jewelry. Repeated exposure to bleach breaks down the alloy metals added to the karat gold (especially nickel, copper, etc).  Bleach does not harm pure gold, which is 24K (karat); but 24K gold jewelry can be softer, yielding more scratches, rings may bend or dent more easily. Therefore, alloys are added to gold to increase its hardness factor as well as to change the color. The more alloys in gold, such as in 10K gold, the greater chance of breakdown of the alloys. Areas of the piece which are under the most stress, such as prongs, are the first to develop cracks or break, which can cause you to lose your diamonds or gemstones.

Take Off Your Gold Jewelry When:

• Doing laundry.
• Swimming in pools with chlorine.
• Getting in spas or hot tubs.
• Working with any chemical that may be corrosive.

Hoover & Strong, a major U.S.A. precious metals supplier has done a large study on the effects of chlorine bleach and bromine (the chemical commonly used in hot tubs and spas). They have found that bleach and bromine exposure to gold jewelry will slowly break down the alloys. This means that repeated exposure to these harsh chemicals will eventually cause your expensive rock to disappear from its mounting. Find out more.

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How To Check Your Diamonds For Tightness:

The easiest way to check your diamonds for tightness is to take it to your trusted jeweler. Almost all jewelers will check and clean your jewelry for free (and in front of you). For those of you who like to do things yourself I recommend the following tip. You’ll need good eyesight or close-up magnifying glasses, a good light source such as a table lamp and a large safety pin. Position the lamp a few feet away from you.  Your goal is to see the light of the lamp reflected in the table of the stone you want to check. Start by placing the ring in one hand braced on a table or desk. You cannot check diamonds for tightness while holding both hands in the air because they move around too much. Next, move the ring around until you can see light reflected off the largest facet (the flat top) of the diamond (known as the table). Then, GENTLY push down on at least 4 spots on the top of the diamond. If you have the table visible in the reflected light, you will be able to tell if it moves. If it does move, the stone is loose. If the stone didn’t move, take the point of the safety pin and GENTLY try to jiggle the girdle (the stone’s edge) up and down. If it moves, it is loose. If you have loose stones you are in danger of losing them. Take them to your jeweler and have them tightened. WARNING: I don’t recommend using this technique on colored stones because soft stones, such as opal, pearls, turquoise and many others, could scratch or be chipped.

Get Your Good Jewelry Appraised:

Getting your jewelry appraised by an independent jewelry appraiser is very important. Yes, it costs money. And, no, you shouldn’t have your jewelry appraised by the company that sold it to you. Think about the conflict of interest. Purpose: There are several types of jewelry appraisals. Most people are going to want to get an appraisal for insurance purposes. The goal is to get an appraisal amount that equals the amount you would pay for that item were it lost or stolen. I once had a woman argue with me because she felt I under- appraised her piece. She wanted it to be at least “double” the value it was assessed for. What she didn’t realize (or didn’t care about) was that she would have to pay a much higher insurance premium. Then, if she lost the item, the insurance company would do their own cost analysis based on her appraisal, not on the value listed in the appraisal.

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Keep Your Jewelry Clean:

Why is it important to keep your jewelry clean? The obvious answer is that is will shine more brightly. But there is, perhaps, an even more important reason: to make your jewelry last longer. That’s right, clean jewelry will last longer. The reason is that natural body oils and applied lotions attract  dirt. That dirt is partially made up of common quartz which has a hardness of 7. Say your tennis bracelet has never been cleaned.  Every time your arm moves the links of the bracelet move as well, and when the links move, the dirty build-up in joints act like microscopic pieces of sand paper rubbing against all the moving parts. This will cause the piece to wear at a significantly quicker pace than if it were kept clean!

Don’t Sleep In Your Jewelry:

What is so bad about sleeping in your jewelry? Let’s say you average 8 hours of sleep per night (wish I did!). Do you sleep perfectly still in an unmoving position? No, you move quite a lot during the night. Say you are wearing your engagement ring. Everytime you move your hand the prongs are probably touching the sheets, pillow, your PJ’s or the blanket. Believe it or not, this is wearing your prongs down. Other items of jewelry are particularly bad to wear to bed. One time a customer brought a chain in for repair. Well, it was a chain at one time. Now, it was a mangled clump of yellow gold. “What happened” I asked. “I slept in it” the customer replied. It had been a pretty herringbone chain. I had to tell her it was not repairable. It was now worth nothing more than melt value. The lesson? Don’t Sleep In Your Jewelry.

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Keep Your Jewelry Away From Mercury:

If you regularly deal with thermometers, remove your gold jewelry. If you break a thermometer and get mercury on your yellow gold ring you will think it has changed to white gold! The bad news is that mercury attacks the alloys in gold (gold itself is impervious to mercury). If you have the mercury removed soon enough the item can be saved. If you wait, however, the mercury will break down the alloys and ruin the piece.

You Get What You Pay For:

Like most other areas of your life you get what you pay for with jewelry. This is especially true if you buy from a store with a well known reputation as a good, service-minded establishment. If you buy Dad a ring for $129 you are likely to get a 10K, hollowed out ring (see photo). It may sound like a good idea but the ring won’t last long and it won’t be comfortable for dear old Dad to wear. The side walls of this type of ring are usually very thin making them feel sharp and uncomfortable.

Some years ago there was an ad in a national weekly magazine touting a “One carat Emerald for only $5.00!” I’m sure many people thought “what a fantastic bargain!” I’m also sure they sold thousands of these “emeralds. I put emeralds in quotes because while I’m fairly certain the stones were beryl I’m not so certain they were emerald (although I never bought one). To be classified emerald the stone has to have chromium and/or vanadium present and be a sufficiently deep green in color. These stones were likely green beryl and not true emerald. In any case, my point is that these stones weren’t a great bargain. Save your money!

Don’t Try Jewelry Repairs Yourself:

Here is the classic I see on a fairly regular basis: the gold chain or bracelet repair performed with a soldering gun at home by someone who thinks they’re pretty handy around the house! Usually, they will use lead solder but sometimes a soft silver/tin solder mix is used. Either way it is a real problem. While lead solder can be removed with a 50/50 mix of nitric acid and distilled water, most shops don’t keep nitric acid on hand because it is so corrosive and dangerous.

Above: You can see the lead solder at the bottom right of this photo (from a “home repair” attempt that failed).

Above: The other part of the bracelet with lead visible around the safety ball.

Ladies, don’t let your men fix your jewelry at home. Patching a cracked wall is different from patching your jewelry!

Another problem we see is the Super Glue repair. While Super Glue and related products are fabulous for many repairs you shouldn’t use them to fix the good stuff. Leave fine jewelry repair to the professionals!

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Don’t Mix Perfume and Pearls!!

Ladies (or men, if you are so inclined) if you are going to wear perfume (and who doesn’t) and you are planning on wearing your pearl strand, listen to this tip. Apply your perfume to an area that will not come in contact with your pearls. If you spray perfume on your pearls it will cause them to yellow over time, decreasing their value and beauty. Same goes for hairspray users, spray before putting on your pearl strands or earrings.  Also, after wearing your pearls, wipe the strand with a soft cloth to remove natural body oils, as well as lotions/body makeup you may have applied; these can also cause the knotted cord between pearls to discolor. 

How To Tell Pearls From Imitation Pearls:

I am not really recommending this test but it works, so I’m putting it out there. When you rub a “pearl” on a tooth it will feel gritty if it is a natural or cultured pearl. If it is an imitation pearl it will slide across your tooth. Wipe the pearls clean and do this test at your own risk. You might want to gargle with some Listerine after running this test!

Cleaning Pearl Strands

Pearls are relatively soft which means they can scratch pretty easily and they are sensitive to most jewelry cleaning solutions. Don’t scrub them with a brush, don’t put them into an ultrasonic cleaner and don’t use any cleaning solution unless it states it is safe for cleaning pearls (there are a few cleaning solutions that claim to be safe for pearls on the market).

So, how do you clean a strand of pearls? Before you wear them make sure to keep them away from perfume. After you have worn them wipe them with a soft cloth to remove perspiration. The cloth can be damp or dry but must be soft. Keep your pearls in their own soft pouch. This keeps them away from other jewelry that can scratch them. If the strand gets really dirty your best bet is to have them cleaned and restrung professionally. If you wear your pearls a lot you should probably have them restrung every one to two years. Be sure to pay extra to have the jeweler insert a knot between each pearl. This helps for two reasons. First, the pearls are separated and won’t wear on each other. Second, if the strand breaks you won’t have pearls flying all over the place!

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Buy A Good Jewelry Box

Good jewelry is an expensive investment. Therefore you are going to want to take special care of it. Get a jewelry box that is large enough to hang all your chains and pendants and one that has many slots for your rings. You don’t want to keep your jewelry in big piles where stones rub against other stones and jewelry. If kept in a haphazard mess such as this your jewelry will quickly become worn. Jewelry wears quickly enough without this type of “help.” CON: The only downside to having a jewelry box is that if you happen to get burgled it is the first place the villain will look.

Cleaning Your Jewelry:

Probably the easiest way to keep your jewelry clean is to stop by your local jewelry store and have them clean it for you. Almost all stores will check your stones for tightness, your prongs for wear, and clean your jewelry for free. 

All jewelry should to be cleaned regularly to keep it looking its best. Diamonds attract grease which in turn attracts dust, dirt, and soap residue. A clean cubic zirconia looks nicer than a dirty diamond! In fact, this characteristic of diamonds attracting grease is behind one of the most interesting methods in the diamond mining process.  After the diamond bearing ore is mined, it is crushed to a smaller size.  The ore is then run over a grease table, which is a conveyer belt covered with heavy grease. Because of diamonds affinity for grease they stick to the table while the ore falls off at the end of the conveyor belt.  The diamonds are then scraped off.

A good way to clean jewelry is to purchase a small jar of jewelry cleaner from your local jeweler. A jar usually comes with a tray and a small brush. Brush your items with the cleaner and then let them soak in the solution.  After an hour or so brush them again and then rinse them  in water. Dry your pieces with a clean, soft cloth. If you do this regularly it won't be necessary to let them soak. Read the label for cautions.  You shouldn't clean pearls or opals in this type of cleaner unless it is stated that you can.

A better method is to use an ultrasonic cleaning machine.  The home sized cleaners are very good at keeping your jewelry clean if it is relatively clean to begin with.  It works by creating thousands of vibrations per second to shake the dirt loose from the jewelry. However, they are not safe to use on all stones.  Emeralds, opals, topaz, pearls and many other stones should not be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner. Think red, white and blue because diamonds, rubies and sapphires are generally safe, unless they have visible fractures.

Another quick cleaning method, to restore the sparkle in your diamonds, is to use an old toothbrush and a dab of Ivory soap.  After you have checked your stones for tightness, gently scrub all areas, especially the pavilion (bottom) of diamonds, where the most film accumulates. Rinse under luke warm water and dry.

Precautions: There are some safeguards you should take before cleaning your jewelry. Be sure the stones are tight before cleaning your item. If you can't tell, go to your local jeweler who can tell you. You should have all your jewelry checked once or twice a year by your jeweler. If you are going to be cleaning in a sink, be certain that you plug the basin!  Many thousands of dollars have virtually gone down the drain, usually retrievable but only with great effort.  Even my own wife lost a diamond ring down our bathroom sink. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve it after removing the plumbing!

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Beware of Fraud:

You’ve heard this a thousand times but it really is true when it comes to a jewelry purchase: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. First off, DO NOT buy jewelry from a guy in the parking lot at the mall. Or from a guy anywhere other than an establishment with which you have developed a rapport. I can’t tell you how many pieces of jewelry (usually chains) I have tested that were gold plated brass. “But it is stamped 14K!!” they cry. Yes, but it was stamped fraudulently. Just because an item is stamped 14K (or 18K) doesn’t guarantee the item is as stated. It’s not too hard to get a 14K stamp. If you buy a heavy chain stamped 14K for $50 from a guy who tells you it’s worth $500 you are likely to get burned. This may seem obvious but it happens a lot. Don’t let it happen to you.

Keep your purchases of gems and jewelry limited to familiar sources. Does that mean that you should not buy from an internet source? Absolutely not. I know of many good sources on the internet. But I’ve seen some very questionable offers as well. I would start cautiously by buying something small at first. If it is as advertised you can build up slowly until you are confident they are a first class operation.

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