How to clean gold at home quickly and efficiently

How to clean gold at home? This question is more relevant today than ever, and many people ask it. Nowadays, gold is worn by all: women, men, children, the elderly. Moreover, even at home pets it is often possible to see a gilded suspension on the collar or other similar canine, cat accessory.

Gold items can be everyday, which a person wears every day, without removing, or festive, which await a special occasion in the casket. Strangely enough, but you need to look after both categories of jewelry. We'll figure out how to do it right at home.

General principles of cleaning gold jewelry

No matter how careful the attitude towards the gold decoration, it can be noticed over time that it has darkened, faded, lost its original brilliance and the play of light in the stones is not the same as before. To return the jewelry to a truly royal look, you can clean gold at home, wash and polish stones. Than to clean gold? On sale there is a whole arsenal of specialized tools, but the average person, as a rule, uses improvised means.

To prepare the cleaning solution, the following ingredients will be needed in various variations, which will be described below:

• soap;
• laundry detergent;
• dishwashing detergent;
• baking soda;
• liquid ammonia;
• hydrogen peroxide.

From the handy tools can be prepared:

• toothbrush with cut bristles;
• soft cloth;
• dishes for soaking;
• cookware for boiling( glass or enameled scoop).

Because the impurities are of different intensity, three different methods can be used:

• wiping;
• soaking;
• boiling.

Before you clean the gold at home, you should answer a few questions:

• The items are decorated with stones? Use only soap solution for cleaning. Although for hard stones with an Mohs scale index higher than 7, artillery can be "heavier".

• Are the stones glued or framed? If only glued, then the products can not be soaked. It is better to do with rubbing.
• Decoration gold or gilded? If the products are gold plated, only soap or rubbing will do. Other ways can damage the gilding, since it is not known how thin its layer is. When treating with a soapy solution, it is good to add 2-3 drops of ammonia to it. To make the gilding shine it is possible, wiping with cotton wool soaked in alcohol. If dirt and dirt are covered with dust and grease, you can not brush it with a brush. It is better to use a soft sponge.

• Is gold white? Then it is worth knowing how to clean white gold. For this, a solution with sal ammoniac is used. The agent, which includes abrasive elements, can not be used, so as not to damage the upper rhodium layer, which, as a rule, is covered with white gold.

• Which decoration should I clean? For example, it is important to know how to clean the gold chain. First, it has many hard-to-reach places - seizures in links. To wash all the dirt, you can soak the product or boil it. Secondly, if the necklace or bracelet is thin, you should be extremely careful with them, especially when you need to polish them after washing. If the chain is so tender, that it is terrible to treat with a cloth, dry it with a hair dryer.

Advice: the optimal periodicity of cleaning gold products - 1 time in 3-4 months. However, the earrings can be cleaned more often - once a month, because they are contaminated faster, directly in contact with cosmetics, hair washing agents. Also, sometimes holes in the ears begin to become inflamed, for example, after wearing a low-quality costume jewelry, and with the subsequent donation they stain the gold earrings, leaving on them a touch with an unpleasant smell.

Than you can clean gold

If from the original shine there is not a trace left, and the decoration itself darkened, it's time to bring it to the senses. To get rid of blackness, you need to know what causes it. Gold itself, being a noble inert metal, does not oxidize. For this reason, many ornaments are applied to gilding. It not only decorates the product, but also protects it. But other metals that make up its composition are more susceptible to external influences and eventually darken.

Thus, ornaments made of base material( for example, with a breakdown of 375-38% of gold) with a large proportion of the ligature blacken much more often. Gold of 585 tests is the most successful combination of 59% of gold and ligature( silver, palladium, nickel and copper) due to malleability, strength and ability not to fade when touched by air, most beloved by jewelers.

Also jewelry lose its luster due to a greasy plaque that covers rings, earrings and bracelets from contact with human skin. In order to cope with these problems, an oxidizer( ammonia, hydrogen peroxide) and a fat-dissolving agent( washing powder, detergent, soap) will be required. And to remove strong contaminants you will need an abrasive( baking soda).

Answer the questions above and choose the most acceptable method for cleaning your jewelry.

• Cleaning with ammonia and washing powder.

Prepare the solution: stir in 1 cup boiling water 1 st.l.washing powder and 1 tsp.ammonia( ammonia solution).Soak for 60 minutes, then brush with a toothbrush. Rinse jewelry under a stream of clean water. To polish the product, use a dry soft cloth.

• Cleaning with hydrogen peroxide, ammonia and liquid soap.

Prepare the solution: mix 1 cup warm water, 1 tsp.children's liquid soap, 1 tsp.ammonia and 30 ml of hydrogen peroxide. Soak in the decoration solution for 10-15 minutes, then rinse with clean water and dry. If necessary, you can clean the decoration with a toothbrush.

• Cleaning with a dishwashing detergent.

Prepare a solution: dilute the dish detergent( about 1 tsp) in 1 glass of water. Soak the jewelry for the night, and in the morning, rinse and dry. To polish gold, use a soft cloth: flannel or specially designed for polishing ornaments.

• Soap pulp.

Prepare a solution: adjust the lump soap and dilute it with a liquid soap. Place the product in a concentrated soap solution for 1-2 hours. Then brush it clean, rinse with clean water and polish.

• Cleaning by boiling with baking soda.

Prepare the solution: in 1 glass of water, dissolve 2 tbsp.l.baking soda. Choose the suitable glass or enamelware. Put a soft cloth on the bottom of the dishes, place decorations on it and pour the solution. Boil for 1-2 minutes, then rinse.

If there is no time for soaking jewelry, clean them quickly can be wiped with clean ammonia or medical alcohol. Apply it to a cotton pad and wipe the product. If we are talking about earrings, then remove the gray-green coating with an unpleasant odor will help hydrogen peroxide.

Just drip the tool onto the earring and wait for the end of a violent reaction with the formation of foam. Then wipe the decorations with alcohol and polish to give a shine. For disinfection, you can also treat the earlobes with a cotton swab moistened with hydrogen peroxide.

Tip: only soft fabrics and toothbrushes with a delicate pile can be used for cleaning gold, for example, old children's toothbrushes marked 0+.

We clean jewelry with stones

The gold cleaning options described above are suitable for decorations without additional decorative elements: stones, enamel, etc. But if your favorite earrings are decorated, for example, with diamonds, you should take care of them in a special way. The answer to the question of how to clean gold with stones does not have an unambiguous answer. Each stone needs its own approach.

Earrings with pearls can not be placed in a solution containing ammonia in the composition, or cleaned with vinegar. Also under the ban, any abrasive agents. Despite the fact that ammonia effectively cleanses from the darkening of gold, it is contraindicated for pearls. Therefore, if it is decided to clean gold with ammonia, you need to make sure that it does not hit the stone. And the pearl itself is perfectly cleaned with a soap solution. The same applies to corals and turquoise.

Diamonds, cubic zirconia, cubic zirconia are not afraid of ammonia. On the contrary, cleaning the gold at home using these solutions is able to give the jewelry shine and restore the original appeal. Refreshes not only gold, but also stones, and it is safe for the latter. However, as noted above, if the stones are only glued to the decoration without additional fastenings, soaking and washing them is not recommended. It will be sufficient to treat the product with a cloth soaked in a prepared solution.

Asking how to clean gold jewelry with stones at home, you can follow the Mohs scale. This mineralogical scale, showing the degree of hardness of a stone, its resistance to scratching. For example, the pearls and corals considered above have a Mohs number of 3-4, while diamonds( or diamonds, when it comes to faceted stone) are 10. That is, the lower the stone index, the more cautiously it should be taken care of. And it's about how to clean gold with stones, and how to wear similar jewelry.

Diamonds and gold ornaments are the girls' constant friends for many centuries. But to shine in the truest sense of the word a woman will be only when the decorations, complementing her image, will sparkle and play. Now you know how to peel a gold ring, earrings or chain and polish them to shine. Any of the tools described is available, and the methods are fairly simple. The main thing is not to be lazy, and then "best friends" will reciprocate you: emphasize femininity or confirm the status of the owner.