Cleaning Your Alchemy Items

scootiebee wrote:

commercial jewelry cleaners are basically sudsy ammonia, water, and a detergent. Get a small jar with a lid, and put about 1/2 ammonia, half water, and then a squirt or two of dishwashing liquid soap. Shake it up, and you have a great jewelry cleaner. Just don't use it on pears, opals, or porous jewelry, anything with wood, soft stones, or lapis, things like that. But for hard stones and metals, it is great.

Doesn't ammonia leave an unpleasant smell as compared to toothpaste? I've never tried toothpaste on my pewter items to date, but I know it works brilliantly with silver items.

No odor, because you have to rinse it completely in cool water. You definitely don't want any residue from the cleaner on your jewelry. I just worry about using toothpaste. Isn't it abrasive? Plus, the sudsy ammonia, mixed with dish soap, smells a little icky, but more like the soap you add. I do use a toothbrush to get any residue out of crevices in the jewelry. And then rinse very well, and dry. No smell is left on the jewelry. And you can cap the liquid, and use it again and again until it gets dirty.

To shine my treasures Alchemy I use a drill with a grinding wheel that I fixed on a vice and I would rather tell you than that ... it shines!

Mes hommages.

T.

wow, okay, I just did some research online, and it turns out that jewelers don't recommend either toothpaste or ammonia, because they can damage the finish on a lot of jewelry. They recommend warm soapy water for a soak, followed by a rinse, and then thorough drying. huh. That's how I usually clean my jewelry, and I also have several anti-tarnish polishing cloths. I replace them every once in a while, when they start to get ratty looking. You can't wash them, since they have a polish in them, but when they get a little ugly, I buy a new one. You can get them at any jeweler.

Wow, that solution is even easier than the ammonia one I mentioned. And better for your jewels.

scootiebee wrote:

wow, okay, I just did some research online, and it turns out that jewelers don't recommend either toothpaste or ammonia, because they can damage the finish on a lot of jewelry. They recommend warm soapy water for a soak, followed by a rinse, and then thorough drying. huh. That's how I usually clean my jewelry, and I also have several anti-tarnish polishing cloths. I replace them every once in a while, when they start to get ratty looking. You can't wash them, since they have a polish in them, but when they get a little ugly, I buy a new one. You can get them at any jeweler.

Wow, that solution is even easier than the ammonia one I mentioned. And better for your jewels.

Thanks for that one. It saves me from having to go out and buy special stuff to clean my items.

^.^ Good ol' soapy water.

I knew the trick of the toothpaste, but I never tried.

Mes hommages.

T.