How to Clean an Engagement Ring at Home
Hello again! My customers often ask me how to clean their engagement rings. Of course the official line is to always take your ring to a good jeweller in order to clean it, but in reality it is possible to give a ring with a sapphire, diamond or ruby a simple clean at home. Sapphires in particular really benefit from cleaning because light does not totally-internally reflect with them as well as it does with a diamond, and so they do so lose their sparkle when the backs get mucky. Even a little hand cream can build up and stop your stones sparkling.
I should just emphasize that home cleaning is only really suitable for a really well made and sound engagement ring. But if your well made engagement ring is made from gold, white gold, rose gold or platinum with no stones other than diamonds, sapphires or rubies, it is easy to give it a really good clean up at home and it only takes a few minutes. You can do this as often as you like and if you try this, you will be pleased that you did as your precious stones will sparkle like they did when your ring was new!
It is, though, very important not to try this with any other stones than diamonds, sapphires or rubies - seek advice from a good jeweller before home-cleaning anything other than this as many stones like emeralds or opals could be severely damaged by home cleaning because they are porous and chemicals or even hard water can damage them
Before you start, have a really good look at your engagement ring. Check that the claws look really sound and that none of the stones are chipped or moving in their settings. If you do have any damage or any claws which look worryingly thin, it is important to take your ring straight to a good jeweller and not try cleaning it at home for fear of loosing the stone if it is dislodged during the cleaning process.
Run a basin full of warm to hot water (with the plug in to avoid accidentally dropping your ring down!). Get a very soft bristled toothbrush (I have a baby's toothbrush) or a sable paintbrush and neat washing up liquid... it is very important that the brush is soft so that the bristles could not scratch the metal. Put a few drops of the washing up liquid straight onto the damp brush and brush the bristles in and around all of the stones - including the backs of the stones (which should be open to the finger to enable cleaning on a good quality ring). Rinse this in the water and repeat until you are happy you have got all of the dirt off. It is important not to apply too much pressure when brushing so that you don't scratch the metal or push the stones so much as to dislodge them from their settings. Then dry the ring using a lint free cloth - ideally a gold or platinum polishing cloth (see below for a link). Then rub the metal over with the same metal cleaning cloth to make it shine.
When storing your metal cleaning cloth, you must keep it in a packet and not out in the atmosphere because if you do, not only will the polish dry up more quickly, also dust or grit can get onto it and then when you rub your metal with it, this will scratch the ring.
If there is any really caked-on dirt (e.g. anything like pastry that has hardened onto the ring) or if you haven't cleaned it for a really long time, it sometimes helps to soak the ring overnight submerged in neat liquid flash before you start (that's right - the all purpose or floor cleaner! Or you can use any other similar non-abrasive neat floor or all-purpose). Just pop your ring in a glass and completely cover it in this liquid detergent... being careful to put this in an unusual place so that you don't accidentally pour it away and loose your ring! This soak will help loosen off this dirt before you start. In days gone by, people used to soak their diamonds in gin which also works and is a very good excuse to buy a bottle of nice Bombay sapphire gin (!)
Another thing that my customers often say from our grandparent's generation is that you can clean a diamond ring with toothpaste but I don't recommend this as I think it is a bit too abrasive and could scratch the metal on a fine setting.
You can buy your baby toothbrush, detergents (or your gin!) at your local supermarket or go online for example places like Tesco deliver straight to your door, they also sell Goddardís silver polishing cloths which are quite good for silver. We sell small gold and platinum polishing cloths which we recommend in both of our shops for just a couple of pounds and you can see where our shops are here. (Or find out where to buy some lovely Bombay sapphire gin here!
So give it a whirl and be dazzled by the results!
Yummy Black Diamond Beads
Hi there,
Just had to tell you that I have just bought some beautiful strands of black diamond beads from one of my favorite stone dealers who has just returned from overseas with them. They are stunning and so sparkly! You often see them not very well cut but these are evenly cut and very lovely. I think they are so so glittery that less will be more with these designs so I am working on ways to show off a few off them for understated sparkle with a bit of Christmas zing. I have long loved these black diamonds that are becoming more and more available and was looking through for some information on the web and found these useful links...
Here is a link to an interesting article about black diamonds from the lovely GIA.
Here is a really good link with some great pictures to show how black diamonds are normally treated.
I will be using these designs for one of the Christmas 2007 pieces for the Purple Label collection... and I am just working on the initial design drawings today. I'll be sure to take pictures for you as soon as I have the prototypes finalised in a few weeks time so that you can get a sneak preview. Hurrah for black diamonds!
Best wishes, Harriet
Alison Harding
Mohs Hardness
Hi
I’ve recently been doing some research into finding clear, honest advice about jewellery on the internet. Thank goodness these days you don’t have to buy your precious engagement ring on blind trust, the only problem is that there is so much info available on the internet that you feel like you need a degree in Jewellery Design to understand what you are buying and this can be a bit confusing. Still, knowledge is power, as long as it’s the right knowledge and if you can unravel the language and terms you can be in a good position to make sure that you are getting great value and quality for your money and not end up with something poor quality just because it looked good in a picture and sounded like a bargain.
Anyway I thought I would share some of the info that I’ve found and put together an explanation of a few of the common terms that you will come across if you are looking at buying a stone or having a piece of jewellery made for you. I’ll add these over the next few weeks so you can build up a basic knowledge. I’ll start with the Mohs’ scale of hardness which you will come across on most jewellery sites you visit.
Gemstones are tested by using the Mohs’ scale to determine how hard they are. The harder minerals do not scratch easily and will be better used in jewellery. Something with a Mohs’ hardness of 1 can be scratched with a finger nail, a rating of over 7 is relatively hard. Gemstones like Citrines and amethysts fall in this range. Sapphires and rubies come in at 9 and diamond, the hardest naturally occurring mineral, comes in at 10.
The Mohs’ scale should really be called a table rather than a scale, because it isn’t to scale, i.e. the numbers allocated to different minerals are not proportional to their actual scratch resistance, so that the scale is really an ordered list.
| Mohs | Mineral | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Diamond |  |
| 9 | Corundum |  |
| 8 | Topaz |  |
| 7 | Quartz |  |
| 6 | Orthoclase |  |
| 5 | Apatite |  |
| 4 | Fluorite |  |
| 3 | Calcite |  |
| 2 | Gypsum |  |
| 1 | Talc |  |
Mohs took ten well known easily available minerals and arranged them in order of their “scratch hardness”. If a stone to be tested can be scratched by a known mineral from the list, it is softer than the mineral, if it will in turn scratch another mineral, it is harder than that mineral. This gives a very quick and easy field test for hardness.
Generally high scratch resistance is what you want in gemstones with a Mohs’ hardness scale of 7 or higher. The main reason is that sand (silica grit or quartz) is a common cause of abrasion and is present in dust so stones which are softer than quartz are not good for use as facetted jewellery gemstones, particularly in rings. They may be beautiful, but will show scratches easily, for this reason they are often shaped into cabochons or beads so that they don’t show the scratches so easily.
I hope this is useful and if you want to know more there’s loads of info at the links below.
White Precious Metals
As a metalsmith and jewellery designer, the most common question that I am asked is "What is the difference between the white metals?". There is quite a bit of information about this on our website but I think there is a lot more to say, so in this section of our blog, I will take you informally through the best white metals to use for precious jewellery one by one starting with silver. Then I will add to this the other metals each week or two.
By the way - before I start, there are pictures of the different precious metals here so do click and have a quick look first. I know that exactly how the picture colour appears will depend on your monitor settings but hopefully you can still see the difference between the look of the white metals.
First of all it is important to say that all precious metals are soft - this is why jewellers can work them into beautiful shapes and forms for jewellery - because they are malleable. Steel (which of course is not a precious metal!) is not malleable and so when you find steel jewellery it will have been machine made because it cannot readily be hand worked with steel tools. Being slightly soft, all of the precious metals will scratch with wear. You will already know that even steel scratches from your steel cutlery or sinks at home - and this is much much harder than platinum for example. So first it is important to know that no precious metals will stay high-gloss with wear and everything will dull and get a lovely soft patina with wear. Every time you pick something up whilst wearing a ring, you are lightly scratching or rubbing (burnishing) the surface and we all do lots with our hands every day without thinking about it. Don't be afraid of this light surface wear though... when you buy a new engagement ring you notice every single scratch for the first couple of weeks and then before you know it, each gentle scratch burnishes into the next and your ring develops a lovely soft worn patina which looks great with precious metals. I just think that it is important to know that no metal will stay gloss-shiny when worn even with light wear. Also though, do beware of steel objects as these can damage your precious metal rings. Our tools are made from steel and so if, say, when you wear your ring you are regularly shutting a steel filing cabinet, walking a dog with a steel-chain ring or clapping with another metal ring on the opposite hand; then you are effectively hammering your ring with metal which is just what we do in the workshop when we want to permanently distort the shape of metal.
Silver
Many people already own a piece of silver jewellery and are familiar with its properties. It is a naturally blue-white metal and is very malleable and soft to work. Silver does scratch and dent relatively easily though in wear but it does look good when it has this 'worn look' and gets a nice 'lived in' look quite easily. However I think it is a beautiful white metal and it is very popular. It isn't that expensive which means that it is popular with less experienced metalsmiths when they are training as mistakes aren't too expensive for them to cover! This is why you often see lots of silver jewellery at craft fairs and the like...and also this means that it can be relatively cheap to buy when it has been worked by an amateur jeweller or when it has just been cast into a repeat mold which is done a lot with ethnic jewellery for example.
Amateur jewellers aside, it is possible to find really special silver pieces too. I would say that if you don't have a big budget and want to invest in a beautiful piece of jewellery design it can be great to buy a really good pendant or ring that you love from a really experienced metalsmith. Search for something that you just *must* have and go for it in the name of investment in good design. The antique jewellery experts usually agree that it is better to invest in good design rather than gemstones...so you never know, you could buy from the next big designer and your grandchildren may be pleased that their pieces will command high prices as collector’s items in years to come! (Or anyway - you can just enjoy wearing the piece in the meantime anyway!). When you invest in a great designer silver piece of jewellery you get all the love and care of a really good craftsman at a lower cost than gold. We always have a few really good silver pieces in our range for this reason like lovely simple silver hand made bangles (not just cut off a tube or cast like the ones you will find at markets!). Here are a few special silver pieces of ours that I love...
Anyway - I digress... None of the precious metals tarnish very easily as they are not very reactive compared with, say, iron which rusts (i.e. oxides or tarnishes) easily. However, silver is the most reactive of the precious metals and so will tarnish in damp conditions. So if, for example, you leave a silver pendant in your jewellery box when it is damp or rainy outside, you may go back to it in a few weeks and find that it has gone dark - sort of browny black. This is the surface of the silver lightly oxidising in the damp air. Nothing to worry about - just buy a silver cleaning cloth and give the surface a gentle rub and the silver soon comes up bright again (we sell them here in the shop for about £1 and you can see more information about them at www.towntalkpolish.com). If you have a satinised silver piece and leave it in the bathroom for a couple of days by mistake, this can be harder to clean because if you rub it with a silver cloth you may burnish off the satin finish. In these cases silver-dip may be a better idea but be careful - you can't silver-dip anything like pearls, emeralds or any porous stones..so ask your jeweller for advice before doing this if it is anything other than plain silver. If you have a piece of silver jewellery that you wear all of the time, it probably won't have appeared to tarnish at all - this is because any surface oxidation (which is what tarnish actually is) will have worn off again quickly because it is regularly touched and in contact with things which slightly burnish the surface clean again before any tarnish build-up occurs.
Also silver oxides quickly in the presence of sulphur - so if you have a planned trip to Iceland or Lanzarote and visit the hot pools wearing your silver jewellery - be prepared for it to come out completely black! Actually the water in these sorts of volcanic places is thick with sulphur which is why it smells a bit eggy and even being in the vapour will effect your silver jewellery and once oxidised this heavily it will need lots of attention to get its finish back to a bright white again - so it is best to leave your silver jewellery at home!
It is soft, but is sometimes a good choice for bespoke silver wedding or commitment rings as long as you are aware that it is a soft metal there is no reason not to use it if it is your favourite. We have several totally unique silver rings (or pairs of rings) in our collection which have been hand worked and hand engraved individually like these for example.
However, I would not recommend setting precious stones like diamond into silver rings to be worn all the time and would not recommend silver for intricate stone settings. It works best for dress rings or simply without stones as it is just too soft to be relied upon for a fine claw setting for a costly stone or for invisibly set diamonds in rings to be worn every day.
I hope that you find this information useful, for anyone who’d like some more technical details on silver, take a look at the links below.
Watch this space - more info coming soon! Best wishes, Harriet
