How to Clean Your Fine Gold Jewelry and Gems

Fine gold is a percentage of pure gold mixed with an alloy. The higher the percentage of gold in your jewelry the softer and more delicate your jewelry is, since gold is a soft lustrous metal. Carat is the measure of pure gold in your jewelry. A carat is 1/24 of the total weight. If a piece of gold is marked 18k or 18 carats then it is eighteen parts pure gold to 6 parts of alloying metal.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. 
   cleaning your gold jewelry

   Gold, if reasonably pure, will not tarnish. Gold jewelry may become dull and should have its pristine brilliance restored. It is best never to boil your gold jewelry. This can be dangerous. If you walk off and forget it is boiling you could come back to a blob of gold instead of your fine jewelry.

2. 
   cleaning gold

   There are a lot of excellent cleaning agents on the market for fine jewelry but here is a simple homemade formula that works just as well. Fill a small bowl with any liquid soap and a teaspoon or more of clear household ammonia. The ammonia adds luster to the gold and brilliance to encrusted stones that may be in the jewelry.

3. 
   Old soft toothbrush

   Immerse your jewelry that you want to clean in your bowl of mixture and let stand for a few minutes. Remove each piece of jewelry one at a time. Take a soft toothbrush, (I like an old used one) and gently brush the piece and then rinse in hot running water. Dry carefully. Never wash pearls in anything but clear, cold water.

Resources

• 14k White Gold Swiss Blue Topaz Teardrop Earrings
• 14k Gold Heart Devil Diamond Pendant (.04 ct)
• 10k White Gold Black Diamond Infinity Pendant
• Brilliance! Masterpieces from The American Jewelry Design Council
• 500 Brooches: Inspiring Adornments

[thebeaddoodler]

on 1/27/2009 Thanks for the reminder. I knew this process, but I wear my "real" jewelry so seldom I don't think to clean it. I need to do that.

[dlcass]

on 1/25/2009 Excellent ideas. Thanks for the warning about the pearls. Opals need to be added to the warning too.

[sneedc]

on 1/25/2009 I'm afraid to wet my pearls at all for fear the strings will loosen. YOIKES! 5*

[davidcavalier]

on 1/22/2009 great ehow