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Jewelry Cleaning

Clean Up Old Jewelry to Uncover Hidden Treasure

When collecting used jewelry odds and ends, you never know what treasures await you once the pieces are cleaned.

This could be a delightful hobby all on its own; but combine salvaging with jewelry making and you could be onto a very high profit product line. See some examples in my article, Hidden Treasures.

Cleaning Beads, Stones and Pearls

Most found treasure beads, stones and pearls clean up nicely with just a gentle soap and water bath. I like Woolite, but Dreft and Ivory Soap Flakes work well too.

Let items soak for ten to fifteen minutes. Rinse with clear water, place on a lint free towel, blot gently and let sit to dry.

To save yourself some steps, you can tie the beads, etc., inside a pantyhose and place on the top rack of your dishwasher.

Set the machine for gentle cycle. Any stones with carved surfaces that still harbor grime can be brushed gently using a soft toothbrush or mushroom cleaning brush.

Ultrasonic cleaners for jewelry or dentures can be used on harder crystalline stones like amethysts, but take care with other beads.

Frequently the cleaning solutions contain alcohol, ammonia or other harsh ingredients. Alcohol and ammonia will eat away many stones and are especially destructive to pearls.

Never use harsh detergents, abrasive cloths or cleaners on any of your found treasure beads, stones or pearls.

Cleaning Metal Jewelry

If your found treasures include gold or silver, lucky you. Just don’t ruin these precious metals with aggressive cleaning.

You may have read that denture tablets dropped into a glass of water holding your jewelry really makes it sparkle. Don’t be fooled.

While part true, what the proponents don’t tell you is that denture cleaning tablets do their work with chemicals like hypocholorite or persulfate, which are highly corrosive to many metals.

Gold Jewelry

Gold is a very soft metal and is easily scratched. You won’t likely find any solid gold in your salvaging because gold is too soft for jewelry unless combined with a harder metal. The higher the karat count, the more gold it contains and the softer the alloy is.

And then there’s also gold-plating. Since you probably don’t know the composition of your found gold, caution is the watch word.

The most common mixture of gold used in jewelry contains 14 parts of gold mixed with 10 parts of base metals. While 14K is standard for gold jewelry products, you can get anywhere from 10K to almost pure gold.

Many jewelry items are base metal plated with gold. While gold-plated jewelry is very difficult to tell from solid gold, even the best gold plating eventually wears away. How long the piece will last depends on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Soak gold jewelry pieces in a 50/50 solution of water and ammonia for a half hour. Using tweezers or tongs gently lift and swirl the pieces around a few times before removing them from the solution. Drain on paper towels.

Silver Jewelry

A fine silver patina increases the value of many antiques. Assess the look of any silver pieces. If they have an antique look, leave the patina alone and clean only the surface with a silver polishing cloth or a name brand silver cleaner. Follow package directions and be sure to dry the pieces thoroughly before storing.

For silver chain and findings, you may want to remove all the tarnish from the crevices.

Try this simple home method. Place a sheet of heavy aluminum foil, shiny side up, on the bottom of a large pot. Add enough water to cover your silver pieces; but at least two inches.

Stir in 1 teaspoon each baking soda and salt. Place your silver on the foil in one layer. Bring to a boil and boil two to three minutes. Drain off the baking soda solution.

Rinse very well with clean water and remove the pieces. Be sure there is no baking soda residue on the metal. It could scratch the surface when you buff. Dry and buff with a soft cloth.

To retard formation of new tarnish, sprinkle a little baking soda into a zip bag, loosely wrap the silver in a tissue to separate it from the abrasive powder, and seal the bag.

Copper Jewelry

Make a thick paste of lemon juice and salt. Use an old paint brush to brush it over the entire surface. Let sit for five minutes.

Take a cut lemon and buff the surface with the cut side. Rinse well and dry with a lint free cloth. If any oxidation remains, soak for a longer time in a lemon juice and salt solution and buff with very fine steel wool.

To prevent future tarnish you can lacquer copper. This is advisable for jewelry and most of your buyers would demand it.

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