[Jewelry making - Article 00275] - Re: [Orchid] Advising customer how to clean silver

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>        the Silver cleaner you can buy has a lot of chemical stuff in it
>     and you shouldn't use it with stones, pearls, amber and such
>     because it could damage them. Toothpaste is just so much
>     "healthier" and cheaper and better smelling and (my main reason to
>     use it) it doesn't irritate your skin. 

Edith,

    the vast majority of stones and metals will not be harmed by
    anything in silver cleaner.  Even pearls and amber, which do need
    some care, will be OK if you don't soak too long.  Amber needs to
    avoid ammonia and heat, while pearls need to avoid acids. 

    By contrast, tooth paste often contains abrasives.  Mild ones, but
    abrasives none the less.  Hard stones don't mind, but you can take
    the polish off of amber, and certainly take the polish off of silver,
    with many tooth pastes.  if you use the clear gel types, which may
    have less abrasive natures, you might be OK.  But still, toothpaste
    is generally NOT a good idea with jewelry, at least not if it's got
    any sort of high polish anywhere.   Now, once silver jewelry has been
    worn a while, it may not have any high polish left, so perhaps
    you're doing no harm.  But please don't consider toothpaste as
    totally benign.  This may be especially true with gold jewelry.  The
    areas inside and under a stone setting, for example, were likely
    polished before the stone was set, and, being protected from
    abrasion, might get dirty, but will retain their polish once
    correctly cleaned.  If a customer digs out the dirt in their diamond
    ring with toothpaste and a toothbrush, those nicely polished areas
    around their diamonds can end up dulled significantly. 

    The notion that silver cleaner has lots of "chemicals" and is
    therefore somehow bad,  is unfortunate.  EVERYTHING has chemicals,
    including the most organic and natural foods.  What's important is
    which ones.  Toothpaste is also full of chemicals.  They happen to be
    ones deemed safe in the mouth, but chemicals even so.  There are a
    number of different types of silver cleaners.  Not all are
    particularly irritating.  The dip type tarnish removers such as
    Tarnex contain mostly just thiourea, not lots of chemicals.  But that
    one is irritating, certainly, and the item needs to be well rinsed
    afterward.  But it leaves no film or residue, so rinsing should solve
    any problems.  In use, rubber kitchen gloves will prevent any
    problems during cleaning itself.  And that one is the most problematic
    of the silver cleaners.   Even simpler is the home method of washing
    soda and aluminum, which has similar results but no irritation, at
    least no more than any simple laundry detergent. .   Semichrome paste
    polish is formulated just for polishing metal,  and leaves a high
    polish when you're done, without any especially irritating
    ingredients.  And the non-rouge (often yellow or gray) colored
    polishing cloths also contain little that could be irritating at all,
    yet do a nice job with the metal 

HTH
Peter Rowe

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