How to Clean a Diamond Ring
- June 17, 2008 by Fox | Comments: 9
I want to come clean with a sparkly scenario. Let’s say you have a diamond ring ’cause you’re engaged, married, or have inherited something blingy. Let’s say you wear it, even daily. Does the sparkle fade after a few days of wear? Do you want to bring the brilliant diamond blingy back?
I’m not a huge ring or earring wearer, but the few pieces I do own I prefer to wear clean. I don’t know how rings get sooo dirty. The prongs and basket on a ring setting seem to be collectors of great clumps of junk. It’s gross. Besides, the grime and oil we humans seem to exude does nothing to keep a diamond fingerprint free and clean.
One answer is to bring your gems to a jeweler who will steam your rings and things clean. But I find this option expensive, and not practical for those wearing rings daily.
Another answer to keeping diamond rings spotless is to use something called an ultrasonic cleaner. These ultrasonic cleaner things seem to be all the rage in larger city centers where diamonds are as big as home mortgages. They work by placing jewelry pieces into a chamber containing special ultrasound conducting fluid and electronically activating the machine to produce ultrasonic waves through a transducer. Phew, physics anyone? Anyways, both the fluid and the machine are expensive to purchase, the machine is expensive to maintain, and the violent shaking of these cleaners can loosen and dislodge diamonds in delicate settings. Diamond ring settings containing very small pave, channel, and bead set diamonds can easily get eaten in such machines.
I don’t want you to spend a fortune or obtain a degree in physics just to clean your rings. So I’ll share an inexpensive and easy way to keep your diamond things clean. Here’s how:
What you need:
- Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol 70%, $1.75 at your local drug store.
- Small bristle brush, .99 each at your local drug store.
- Facial tissue, .99 cents.
How to clean:
- Place your ring in a small dish filled with rubbing alcohol, just enough to cover the top of the ring.
- Soak the ring for 1-2 minutes in the alcohol.
- Brush ring carefully yet vigorously with soft bristle brush. Be sure to scrub between setting prongs and under the basket and shank.
- Resoak ring for another 2 minutes, and then dry on a tissue.
- Your diamond ring will look brand new! Repeat every other day for best results.
I’ve used this ring cleaning method on all sorts of metal jewelry, including: white gold, yellow gold, and platinum. I’ve soaked sapphire and ruby gemstone rings and earrings. I would only recommend using this method on hard gems though, like diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. Softer gems like emerald, opal, amethyst, topaz, garnet, tourmaline, peridot, and moonstone should be cleaned in warm water. Organic gems like pearls, coral, shell, amber, and ivory may be best cared for by a trusted jeweler.
Are you a ring clean fiend? Have a frugal method for cleaning non-frugal jewelry?
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I tend to just take it in to a major jewelry chain store and have them clean it on-site for free. If they’re a chain, then they can’t tell whether they sold you the ring or not. If it’s a small single shop, they’ll probably recognize it’s not the same ring, but they might clean it anyway.
My mom had a co-worker who swore by denture cleanser. It worked,
Palmolive dish soap and a toothbrush do wonders!
I’ve always used toothpaste and toothbrush to clean my gold and diamond jewellery.
For best results, soak the jewellery in warm/hot water and then use toothpaste and toothbrush to clean it.
Use some old toothbrush of yours that you don’t use. This eliminates the need to buy anything at all
Ive used a toothbrush and some toothpaste as well. Works great!
I do almost the same thing. I use a shot glass because it takes less liquid to cover the rings.
And, instead of rubbing alcohol, I use the cheapest vodka I can find because it has no smell. (Which also makes it useful for mixing my own household cleaner - vinegar, vodka, a dash of Castille soap and usually lavender or tea tree essential oil.)
So, yes, my bathroom counter often has a shot glass of vodka out …
Ok, now how about the real story from a longtime professional goldsmith and gemologist?
First, you’re right that ultrasonics (and steam cleaners too) have their limits and are costly, though the milk steaming wand of a household expresso maker can do much of the same thing as a professional steamer.
But alcohol isn’t the best cleaner. The diamonds get dirty from grease, oils,dead skin, soap scum, etc. What cleans that? Detergent and hot water. Take a saucepan, fill with hot water and add some good strong liquid detergent, and if it doesn’t already have it, a bit of ammonia. Hang your gold or platinum and precious stone jewelry over the edge of the saucepan on a hook made from an unfolded paper clip, so it’s suspened in the solution. The solution will be much the same strength you might use to scrub the kitchen floor, and it will, when simmering, dissolve the gunk in short order. After about five or ten minutes, if there remain bits, use a soft toothbrush to loosen, soak a bit more, and rinse. THEN, if you like dip in alcohol and dry. The alcohol will dry without leaving water spots. An optional step, but you can do it. The main thing is hot, detergent laced water. In jewelry shops before we had ultrasonics or steam cleaners, such a saucepan is how we cleaned jewelry before working on it, and how the polishing compound after buffing was removed. This does work, folks, and works well. Note that this needs to be stones that can take this. Not jewelry held together by glue, nor made of plated cheap metals. No stones like pearls, malachite, turqoise, or other porous and fragile gems. But fine for your diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and the like. If you’re not sure whether your jewelry is safe for this, then instead of the strong detergent used hot, instead use hand dishwashing liquid, in warm water, and soak for longer. maybe overnight. Gentler, and almost as effective. And a couple things Never to use. Toothpaste is sometimes touted. it’s abrasive, and will scratch the metal, and some soft stones. Don’t use toothpaste. Same thing for scouring powder. And NEVER use anything with bleach of any kind. Most are based on chlorine bleach compounds, which react to gold and silver, damaging them. Hope that helps. If you wish more, got to google groups and ask on the rec.crafts.jewelry newsgroup. (I’m the moderator of that group) Lots of other jewelry pros there to help.
Oh, and one other comment worth making. Anytime your jewelry is cleaned, there is the possiblity that diamonds or other stones may be slightly loosened. Dirt working under stones not only can loosen it a bit, but then hide that fact by holding them in. After cleaning, the stones then are loose, and in some cases, can be easily lost (the big problem with steam cleaning and ultrasonics is that those loose stones are then forced out of the mounting by the cleaner, and are easily lost). Loose stones can be a problem with new jewelry where slight errors in stone setting haven’t yet been corrected, or with old jewelry where metal holding the stones has worn away. The fix is simple. After cleaning and drying, use a pin or sharp tweezers or the like touching each stone (especially the little ones) on one side then the other. If loose you can see it “rock” in the mounting, changing the way light reflects on the stone. Larger center stones can be literally wiggled with the tweezers (be gentle here. Just a light touch) to see if they move in the prongs or mountings. They shouldn’t. If any movement at all is seen, take the jewelry to a professional to have the stones tightened. If it’s new, take it where you bought it, and it should be free. If it’s old, find a competent repair shop. Please don’t try to glue the stones. That makes a mess, looks horrible, and is hard to remove when it’s time to do it right.
Hope that helps.
@Peter Rowe Thank you for jumping in. My jeweler is an advocate of using Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, and I’ve seen excellent results when using a soft brush. Using toothpaste does indeed sound too abrasive. Thanks for cleaning up loose ends!