[Jewelry making - Article 00052] - Re: [Orchid] Cleaning pearl and silver necklace

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     Recently a thread on Orchid featured a Silver cleaning processs, I
>     saw a u-tube video on cleaning silver with Baking soda... 

    Sodium carbonate, ie "washing soda" works faster and a bit better
    than baking soda for this, though baking soda also works. Just
    slower. 

>     and Boiling tap water

    And it need not be actually boiling. Warmer is faster, so boiling is
    OK, but warm or hot will also work. The reaction is faster, like many
    chemical reactions, as temperature increases, but it doesn't depend
    on temperature in order to occur. 

>     you place your item in an aluminium pan 

    Or use aluminum foil in a glass or plastic container. The aluminum
    is the key, and the silver MUST be in contact with it. 

>     and cover it with dry baking soda. then pour boiling hot water on
>     it. (it is a chemical process).. 

    or dissolve the soda (whatever type) in the warm water first. You
    don't need to put the dry chemical on the silver first. The reaction
    occurs with the dissolved solution. When or how you dissolve the soda
    in the water isn't important. 

>     It may take a few re-applications of soda and water.. If someone
>     else knows why this could hurt the pearls please Chime in.... I
>     don't know the threashold of heat 220 degree water has on a pearl.
>     could it fracture or hurt them.. ??? I'm not a gemologist. If it
>     can withstand the hot water this worked well. I cleaned some badly
>     tarnished fine chains this way it worked like a charm... that's my
>     input, 

    Real pearls (meaning natural or cultured pearls, rather than plastic
    or other sumulants, and specifically excluding Mabe or other
    "assembled" pearl products that would include glues, plastics, or
    other fillers) are just fine in hot or boiling water. However, if
    they are glued to something, many glues, like epoxies, don't like to
    get too hot. Boiling water will soften and weaken epoxies, so they
    might become unglued, and if not, upon cooling, while the bond might
    be again as strong, it might not be. Pearls strung on silk or other
    cord won't be harmed, but the chemicals will soak into the porous
    threads, and might damage them over time. 

    Note that this whole reaction is not actually a cleaning one. It
    chemically converts tarnish back to it's metallic (white) silver
    color, but it's not really removing dirt or restoring a dulled polish
    (though boiling water with baking soda will have some detergent
    effect too, so perhaps I'm wrong here... But either before or after
    chemical cleaning of the tarnish with baking soda, if there's actual
    dirt and gunk to be removed, soaking in a warm or hot solution of a
    decent detergent, dish soap for example, or stronger, like Mr. Clean
    or Top Job liquid, maybe even with a bit of ammonia added, will be
    more effective at removing dirt, oils, soap scum, etc). So dingy
    yellowed or worse tarnish is "removed", but the silver surface is not
    restored to a bright polish by this process. For that, you have to
    mechanically buff the surface again. A silver polishing cloth, any
    decent silver polish, or the like, will do it much more quickly once
    the tarnish is gone, than it would have done in the first place. If
    you don't need a bright polish, just a nice metallic sheen, just the
    baking soda as a paste with water gently rubbed on the silver will
    brighten it up nicely. if your silver originally was only lightly
    tarnished, you may not need to do this, since it will not have lost
    much of it's original polish to the tarnishing process. But if it was
    more than a little, some brightening up mechanically will make it
    look a lot better than the chemical cleaning by itself. 

Cheers
Peter
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