Cleaning Jewellery - Is It Safe To Clean Your Valued Jewellery?

Take note: If uncertain about cleaning your jewellery consult the opinion of an expert brighton jeweller.

When jewellery is worn, it becomes coated in an oily film which is primarily composed of old skin debris, dust and grit. An oily film will also begin to coat the backs of stones and inside settings if you wear jewellery when washing up, so the main purpose of cleaning jewellery is to remove all this greasy debris.

Here are some suggestions and easy methods to clean different types of jewellery:

Gold Jewellery: You can use an old toothbrush with little warm soapy water to completely clean your gold jewellery.

Gold Alloys: High carat alloys such as 18 carat and above, will not usually become faded, and will not be harmed by household chemicals. However, lower carat gold can be harmed by contact with chlorine based bleach and cleaning chemicals. Chlorine can cause stress corrosion cracking in lower gold alloys of 14 carat and below, though it will be even worse if the jewellery consists of porosity through less than perfect manufacturing treatments. Due to this it is best to avoid cleaning your jewellery with chlorine bleach or other detergents containing chlorine, and also to avoid putting it on when in contact with bleach.

Diamonds: Unless you rub two of your diamonds together, it will be quite difficult to scratch or damage them. Thus, just like gold jewellery the good old toothbrush and warm water and soap will work. A word of caution is that if you are using a cloth, sometimes the synthetic thread might bend the claws which contain the stones and may loosen them.

Silver: When cleaning silver jewellery, Silver tarnishes quickly therefore solutions like Goddard's Silver Dip can be utilized and the tarnish will come off easily.

Platinum: Platinum is extremely resistant to tarnishing such as high carat gold alloys and thus can be cleaned by using chemical substances.

It is always recommended to pop down to your local jewellers in brighton and look for professional advice if you are not sure whether your cleaning method will damage your jewellery.