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Harriet Kelsall
1st February 2010 11:58

Spring Clean your Engagement ring or Eternity ring in time for Valentine's day!

 

It is amazing how much of a difference a quick clean at home can do for your engagement ring but many people don't do this often enough. It is free and takes just 5 minutes. I think that it is a particularly good idea to do this now just in time for Valentine's day! This will just remind your partner that you still care about your lovely engagement ring.

Valentine's Heart

It is easy to just let dirt build up on your ring from hand cream or just general 'life' happening to it! And as this dirt accumulates slowly you can forget to notice that your ring just isn't sparkling any more. This can be particularly noticeable with stones that aren't diamonds where you are also seeing through the gemstone when you look at it (for example a pale blue Ceylon sapphire). But a very quick clean is all it needs to make it sparkle like new. And of course the same instructions work just as well for your eternity ring or a properly made dress ring too.

The following instructions will work for rings with diamond, ruby, sapphire, amethyst, tourmaline, aquamarine and other hard gemstones (if you are unsure if your engagement ring gemstone is hard please e-mail us and ask before you try anything!).

(1) First make sure the plug is in your sink just in case you drop the ring or something!

(2) Put some hot tap water into the basin and put your ring into this to wet it.

(3) Using a very soft brush (like a sable paint brush or maybe even a baby's toothbrush), brush some washing up liquid all over the ring. Don't scrub too hard (even with a soft brush) as you don't want to scratch the metal. But you can brush about bubbling up the neat washing up liquid. Work especially on the back of the ring (where there should be an opening behind the stone/s...but be careful not to push so hard as to dislodge any stones from behind).

(4) Rinse the detergent off in the basin.

(5) Repeat (3) and (4) a few times.

(6) Lastly dry your engagement ring using a lint free cloth. We will have given you one of these if you bought your ring from us but otherwise you can buy them from good jewellers or you can use the sort of cloths that come with your glasses - but make sure that there isn't even a teeny-tiny bit of grit or dust on the cloth or you can end up scratching the metal with this so do be careful and keep your cloth in a bag so that it stays clean. Our cloths are also impregnated with metal polish so they give the metal a bit of a shine-up too.

Cleaning your engagement ring

If you have trouble shifting some more stubborn dirt on your engagement ring or eternity ring then you can try soaking your ring overnight in detergent and water and then having another go. If that doesn't work then the best thing to do is to get your engagement ring professionally ultrasonically cleaned. We can usually do this for you whilst you wait in our Halls Green studio. A good jeweller will always give the ring a look over before it goes in to check that none of the stones are coming loose and then it just goes into a hot bath of water, detergent and usually ammonia and other metal cleaning chemicals. Then they just put some ultrasonic vibrations through the liquid so that the liquid gets into all the hard to reach areas and the ring comes out 5 minutes later looking fabulous.

If you think the actual metal might need more of a buff up than this please do bring the rings to us and we can clean and polish them for you. There is only a very small charge for this and we can usually do it whilst you wait (in our Halls Green studio only). You can buff up your ring using the polishing cloth that we gave you with your ring but this won't get deeper marks and scratches out. But try not to worry too much about scratches to your engagement ring because although they show a lot when your ring is new, over time they blend together to form a nice patina over the whole ring.

If you have bought a ring which does not have an opening behind the gemstone, then this can be very hard or even impossible to clean. They sometimes even need the stone removed and reset to clean them. So be careful not to buy rings that are made in this way.

If you have a very vulnerable engagement ring stone like an opal, emerald or tanzanite, or if you have opted for a pearl or amber ring, then you need to have your engagement ring cleaned by a good jeweller.

I hope this helps and happy sparkling!

Harriet

Harriet Kelsall
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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