Cleaning Your Diamond RingCaring and Cleaning for your Diamond
ring.
Diamond
rings pick up quite some dirt and grime over the weeks and months they are on
your finger and cleaning your diamond in order to bring it back to its original
sparkling self is not as easy as it might seem as certain precautions must be
taken before proceeding.
There are
several cleaning methods of which the first, whether done at home or
professionally is in using an electric high frequency vibrating machine where the
diamond ring is placed in a recipient containing a special cleaning fluid and
it is literally 'shaken' clean by the vibrations within the cleaning solution created by
the machine.
We do not
recommend this method as it can cause the diamond, especially if it is set in
gold or silver and is of a certain size, to wiggle itself loose within the
setting due to the vibrations when cleaning.
This will
allow a loose claw to get caught on any material. Pull apart, perhaps slowly,
with as a result that the diamond will be prone to fall out especially if it is
set between 4 claws.
So under
no circumstances should you allow anyone to use such a method for cleaning your
diamond ring even if it is offered to you free of charge unless of course you
accept the risk factor for this type of cleaning.
The best
method for cleaning your Diamond Ring is what we call the 'soap sud' method.
In this cleaning method you pour a
small amount of boiling water in a small recipient in which a drop or two of
liquid detergent has been added. Then taking an old tooth brush, dipped into
the cleaning solution, you begin to brush the ring seeing to it that the bristles of the
brush are penetrating the small openings around the diamond. This you do
several times until you are satisfied that the bristles have penetrated all of
the orifices around and within the mount and on the diamond itself.
Making
sure, of course, that the sink has been blocked
so that there is no risk of your ring falling into the water evacuation hole,
rinse your diamond ring under the hot tap in order to remove whatever soap suds
that may remain and then dry your ring using a clean kitchen towel or tissue.
Having
done this there is one more important step to take and that involves methylated
spirits.
Place the
ring in a small recipient containing some methylated spirits for 15 seconds,
then wiggle it a bit within the solution in order to create movement. The
diamond ring is then dried using the kitchen towel or tissue again.
The
methylated spirit will revive the brilliance of the metal and it will again
shine and it will remove any 'haze' effect left by the liquid detergent, giving
the diamond that extra sparkle it deserves.
Under no
circumstances must any hard objects be used to pry into the orifices of the
ring nor anything harder than the bristles of a toothbrush as otherwise there
is a risk of further scratching to the metal of the ring.
Article
courtesy of ezine articles. |