topic Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner in Jewelry

DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Denise in PA — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:36:31 GMT

Anyone have a DIY jewelry cleaner we can make at home?

Thanks!

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

depglass — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 16:36:03 GMT

I think plain old dishwashing soap is recommended with a soft toothbrush. Of course, not machine soap.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Pipsqueak — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 18:27:39 GMT

Recently did a major jewelry cleaning of technibond and absolute pieces with cz's and/or lab created stones in them. Don't laugh but did some experimentation with denture tablets and antacid tablets. What actually worked the best was the denture cleanser tablets dropped in warm water, waited for the fizz action then added a few baubles at a time, swished them around some, then used a soft toothbrush. After a rinse under clean water, dried using a linen towel, then wiped the pieces down with a Blitz gold care cloth, or silver care cloth or a technibond polishing cloth, depending on what was being cleaned. The denture solution really helped remove any surface dirt and made it an easier job of getting them to a brilliant shine again. Found that this method works well on the real stuff, too. And denture tablets do a double duty of cleaning and removing germs with its antibacterial ingredients. Yeah, had to do a little elbow work at buffing some of the technibond and absolute pieces because they were really tarnished but now they all look brand new again.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

stevieb — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 21:32:49 GMT

I guess I'm just a creature of convenience, but I picked up a jar of jewelry cleaner for a few dollars at my local 'nicer' jewelry store and it's lasted for a while.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Theoriginallacey — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 22:21:09 GMT

Toothpaste and a toothbrush for me.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Denise in PA — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 02:09:38 GMT

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to try the denture cleaning tablets

and also the toothpaste.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

depglass — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:00:36 GMT

Whatever you do, don't use TarnX. It will take the finish off costume jewelry, discolor sterling, ruin your solid copper pots, etc. When getting my mother's estate things ready for sale in 1995, before I got my QVC jewelry education, I bought the various varieties of TarnX. What a disaster, all of them. Threw them out and used far gentler products.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Kachina624 — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 06:35:34 GMT

My mother used to clean her diamonds using a few drops of sudsy ammonia in warm water. Gave them a few swipes with a soft toothbrush. Diamonds sparkled. Don't use this on porous gemstones, opals, pearls, turquoise.

Re: DIY Jewelry Cleaner

esmeraldagooch — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 15:05:53 GMT

Denise, I hope you haven't used tooth paste yet. It's the worst thing you could use especially on gemstones.

A degreaser cleaner like dawn and soft juvenile tooth brush work wonders on most gemstones, that said, on many this is too harsh to use. Opals, pearls amber, tanzanite.

Tooth paste has particles of marble in them which can scratch gemstone and metals.

http://www.steamshine.com/maintenance/cleaning_guide/