How to look after your eternity ring
Your eternity ring will need to be looked after with care as gemstones are natural materials that can be easily damaged. We suggest you don't wear your eternity ring in situations where it is likely to be damaged (eg. doing the washing up) and please remember that any impact at the wrong angle can weaken the structure of your eternity ring and possibly result in a the gemstone becoming loose or even falling out. Any advice given to you about the suitability of materials, design or choice of gemstone for your lifestyle is given to you in good faith and we cannot be held responsible for future damage to your eternity ring.
We recommend you bring your eternity ring back to us or another good jeweller every 2 years to be checked over. We can then recommend any maintenance work that may doing at that stage.
Gemstones are natural materials and can scratch or be chipped depending upon the stone's hardness. Remember that in the proper craft of goldsmithing, the stones are secured in place by lips or claws of metal pushed up over the stone (rather than adhesive) and a chipped stone is therefore less well secured and could come loose and fall out of its setting.
It is perfectly normal for any setting to become slightly loose over time due to daily wear and tear and it is a simple matter for us or another good jeweller to tighten it up.
We recommend cleaning in the following way:
- Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, amethyst, aquamarines, garnets should be cleaned regularly and carefully, especially behind the stone, using a soft baby's toothbrush and almost neat washing up liquid. Rinse well with water and dry with a very soft lint-free cloth. Pale stones including aquamarines in particular will cloud if not cleaned regularly.
- Emeralds, opals, pearls and amber should only be cleaned by a jeweller.
- Colour treated diamonds: To achieve colour variations diamonds are held under very high pressures and temperatures or by controlled exposure to radioactivity, (similar to the conditions under which diamonds were naturally created). The diamonds may also be heat treated afterwards to stabilise the new colour. Only a small percentage of diamonds can be successfully colour improved using these methods. Therefore it is important that a treated diamond must not ever be heated by a jeweller in the future (eg the treated diamonds must always be removed and then reset with a resize). The reheating can result in the enhanced colour changing or being lost. In case of particular sensitivity to heat, it is also not advisable for them to go through a rhodium plating process or be ultrasonically cleaned.
Precious metals are soft and will scratch, tarnish and finishes will wear over time. The speed at which this will happen depends upon the shape of your hands and how much the metal is exposed to wear, especially it coming into contact with other metal or hard materials. A professional polish will shine the metal of your eternity ring up again.
- Polished silver, gold and platinum can be buffed up regularly using your relevant jewellery cleaning cloth. This should be kept in the packet when not used otherwise abrasive dust could accumulate on it.
- Satin brushed or tunstall/crushed diamond finishes will wear to a dull shine and can be re-applied by us if required.
- Rhodium plating wears off over time to reveal the natural coloured white gold underneath and this can be re-applied by us or another reputable jeweller if required.
- Silver will tarnish over time if not worn (especially in a damp environment) and is likely to go black in a sulphurous area.
- Customer's own precious metal, when melted and reformed, is likely to have porosity introduced into it which may mean that there are slight imperfections to the finished surface or in the worst case, can't be used.
Please contact us if you are at all unsure about how best to look after your eternity rings - we are always only too happy to help.
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Related Blog articles
- Read Harriet's blog article on how to clean your engagement ring at home.
- Read Harriet and Jodie's blog article on how to store jewellery.
- Our precious metals are not alloyed with nickle so it is unlikely that you would have an allergic reaction to your eternity ring as precious metals are not allergens. Read Harriet's blog article on allergies for more information.