Monday, August 19, 2013

Clean Your Jewellery The Right Way

By Anita Hale


You're probably proud of your jewellery. In that case you'll want to know the best practice for cleaning it. This will guarantee it continues to be as dazzling as the day it was bought. Read on for some hints and tips on how to take good care of your rings, necklaces and bracelets.

The sad truth is that virtually all jewellery will suffer from abrasion over its life-time. This really is unavoidable. But this shouldn't be cause for despair. It is possible to noticeably reduce this deterioration. The first thing to do is by limit the situations in which you wear your jewellery. For instance, make sure you remove bracelets, necklaces and rings before you go to bed. Wearing jewellery while you sleep can lead to accidental scuffing. This is why it's safest not to wear any at night. Perspiration is known to contribute to discolouration of numerous metals. Therefore, it is advisable to remove your accessories when working out or playing sport. There are also chemical agents found in lots of household products that shouldn't come into contact with certain metals. Always be careful about mixing your jewellery with things like perfume and hairspray.

There is now a lot of jewellery made from oxidised metal. These metals have been treated create a darkened appearance. There are certain things you must do with this jewellery to avoid running this oxidation. Do not submerge oxidised jewellery. In fact, do not mix gold or silver jewellery with chlorine either. Avoid silver polish when cleaning your oxidised jewellery because this can damage the metal. You should also avoid using silver polish on pearls.

Most jewellery is not made from oxidised metal. In these cases you will need to make sure that the metal does not become oxidised. This is because oxidation effectively tarnishes the metal. This in turn causes discolouration. There are sulphur compounds present in a number of products which can cause oxidation. These can happen if they make contact with certain metals. These products include table salt and synthetic detergent.

You can strip away tarnish by cleaning your jewellery with silver polishing liquid. But this needs to be applied sparingly. Some silver polishing fluids are very abrasive and can do more harm than good. If you are just concerned with day-to-day cleaning than a silver polishing cloth is more than adequate. You can also use soapy water and a toothbrush to remove dirt from your jewellery.

Lastly, here's a quick word about pure metals versus impure metals. Pure metals are things like 18 carat gold. They are nearly always more expensive than less pure metals. They are also much softer than less pure metals. This is because cheaper metals are combined with alloys to bulk them up. The consequence is that cheaper metals are harder and purer metals are softer. This means your expensive jewellery is less scratch-proof than your cheaper jewellery. In order to avoid getting it scratched you should never wear pure metals next to less pure metals. This is a common mistake when we wear rings on our fingers. A cheap ring can easily scratch and mark a better quality ring worn on the finger next to it.




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