cleaning a silver wire wrap

[cpdad]

whats a good way to do it ?...cp brought me his wrapped peice and said its turning brown...which it is....anything i need to know about removing the tarnish....that might affect the stone....jasper and hemetite i think....kev.

WARNING!!!..read my post on page 2..regarding baking soda method before you try it...kev.

[sandsman1]

id try a jewlers cloth first if that dont work didnt i just read a bit ago that kim was useing a tumbler to harden wire wraps and polish at the same time --- i could be wrong but maybe she could point ya in the right direction to doit at home

[docone31]

Hand rub with a dry wash cloth and dry baking soda. If that does not work, Efferdent. For the rare occasions the pendant should go swimming in either the pool, or hot tub, and it turns grey, Mercon.
They all work great provided the silver was polished in the first place. When our customers jump in the pool with their Bling!Bling! silver they get from us, we tell them about Mercon. It is available in Auto Part stores, Hardware stores, and most grocery store chains. Warm it up a bit, almost uncomfortable to the touch, then soak the piece. Wipe untill it is all off. Bingo!
Miracle clean.

[akansan]

Also toothpaste with baking soda in it works wonderfully as well...

[docone31]

Watch out for toothpaste. It contains sodium saccarin. That penetrates even an homogenous alloy like sterling. Works great for a few times, then the material gets hardened. Especially gold. Most rings split at the lower center, and prongs pop off on stones. This is caused either by sodium saccarin, or chlorides. I can tell, when I repair the splits, or retip the prongs. On fresh gold, the flux "prints" white fluff, then it goes brown, then liquid. With a chronic toothpaste user, or a pool indulgent, the flux turns black at the break. This is the chlorides and sodium burining out.
Sterling is a much more stable alloy. Gold is very porous, under magnification it looks like the end grain of a piece of wood. It absorbs everything.
Sodium bicarbonate, even being a salt, is a great antioxidant for precious metals. Long term storage of sterling, put baking soda in a baggie, then the item, then seal and forget.
Miracle clean.

[rockdewd]

Couple of solutions work for me:

1. Ionic cleaner. Takes the tarnish right off. Safe with all stones even opals and pearls. It cost me about $120. Worth every dime to me. When I have pieces looking a little tarnished I take the price tag off and into the Ionic cleaner. Speedbrite is the brandname. I haven't seen any other manufacturer.

2. If you have a vibratory or rotary tumbler mix 50% baking soda with 50% walnut shells. Tumble dry for about 20 minutes and check. Check back every 20 minutes until it's polished. Rinse off the backing soda with water.

HTH

Rick

[johnjsgems]

The best thing I've tried is 25,000 Vibradry from Diamond Pacific. We tried it on some of my wife's beaded jewelry that had tarnished findings. It takes from2 hrs to overnight depending on how tarnished. It made the silver look new again and the beads (ocean jasper) look like they were buffed. Looked so good I keep that necklace handy to show customers to sell the Vibradry and vibrating tumblers. I also threw in some Indian silver/turquoise rings that were black and they came out great. I've repolished some of my cabs as well but that's another topic.

John at JS Gems

[invisibleuser]

The fastest and easiest way to clean is to make a galvanic cell.

Simply lay a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil on the bottom of a shallow cup or other small container. Nothing big- just enough to hold the piece you want to clean.

Lay the silver piece on the aluminum foil making sure it comes in contact with it. Make a solution of warm water and baking soda. Pour into the container. Works fast so watch it. Check- when clean- rinse with water and dry.

This method is fast and won't harm the stones.

invisibleuser

[Tweetiepy]

I thought that putting it on a piece of foil, add hot water with baking soda & a little salt would work, not sure if it would dammage the stone though

[akansan]

Tweety - I was using the tinfoil method until someone mentioned that toothpaste worked better. Guess I'll be switching back to the tinfoil method! It doesn't harm the stones at all...

[invisibleuser]

I think the aluminum foil method works best since it can reach anywhere the solution can reach- something hard to do with a brush at times. As far as the stones themselves- it shouldn't harm them at all. I've never had any problems.

invisibleuser

[sandsman1]

man theres alot of good tips on this page anybody mind if i move this to the tips section ?

[cpdad]

thanks everybody...i will try the simple stuff first ;D....i got this peice from cher last year for him....he thinks a lot of it....and i didnt want to hurt the stone cleaning it....sands of course not..{auto-correct: MOV files not allowed}e it if ya want to ;D...kev.

[Shelbeeray]

WOW. Thanks. That explains why I've lost two stones on my engagement ring after the prongs broke! The toothpaste made the ring so darned shiney and pretty - I had no idea! This is an INVALUABLE thread. Definitely a KEEPER. I was wondering about those ionic cleaners, I saw one on the Ameritool site for something like $90. But, if the tinfoil and baking soda work, I'm not going to spend the extra money!

Doc - when you say "if it was polished in the first place" do you mean with rouge?

[docone31]

Here is the misunderstanding.
With a stone, polishing is very fine grinding making a mirror finish. With metal, final polish is more of a burnishing, rather than a fine grinding. I do both, I polish after soldering. I have a localized spot and I have to blend in the work. Usually, I have to dull down the burnished finish around the solder joint.
Final polishing of finished jewelery. That is a burnishing, or a planishing rather than mechanically reducing the thickness. It also hardens the metal at the stellatite level.
Diamonds are used for cutting. The loss of prongs are a combination of too loose a bearing on the girdle, and the hardening of using either toothpaste, or chlorine.
Gold is very porous, even after burnishing. It is as porous as an emerald. The stuff goes in, and the liquid leaves, leaving behind the chlorides. The bearing, and the chlorides allows the diamond to chisel into the prongs. Add to this the hardness of the prong, and it gets brittle. Cracking at the cut into the prong. A diamond setter uses a 45* burr, rather than an Hart burr.
Ironically, having the prongs retightened every six months as many upscale jewelery stores reccomend further accelerates the hardening process.
When I tighten a prong, rather than pushing the prong down, I twist from side to side. This rachets down the bearing cut as metal shrinks when twisted. Pushing down the prong, planishes the prong down on the stone. The twisted prong has no spring back. The pushed prong will spring back in part. Metal has a memory.
To clean the pavillion on stones in a setting, Soak them over night in denatured alcohol, or rubbing alcohol. Since few Rednecks are on this forum, I do not have to tell anyone to not drink the alcohol in the morning after removing the ring. I have to in my shop. I have had folks remove their rings, or other jewelery, then finish the glass.
My head hits the table, many times.

[invisibleuser]

invisibleuser said:

Make a solution of warm water and baking soda.

invisibleuser

1 heaping tablespoon baking soda per cup very warm water

[cpdad]

i didnt understand well i reckon .....i put a peice of foil in a cup...laid our wrapped peice in it...then i put a cup of water in microwave...got it pretty hot...took it out...when i added a tablespoon of baking soda to it...it acted like a volcanoe...hot water spewed out of the cup and landed on the top of my bare feet....not good...it hurt...so dont do what i did ;D

heres what i did after i finished jumping up and down ;D

1...line a cup with aluminum foil
2...lay wrap or silver in aluminun lined cup
3...add half cup of hot water
4...then add tablespoon of baking soda to hot water in aluminum lined cup.
5...it will fizz up to the top...maybe run over a little...so be prepared for that.
6...remove peices from solution after about 2 minutes and rinse.

worked great...peice is totally clean...looks great.

i have a few bails that need cleaning....going to try docs efferdent suggestion next....will post...when i try that....kev.

[invisibleuser]

That's odd. :oI never had any problems with spewing or anything like that.

Only two things I can think of that may have caused it.

#1- water was too hot. the hotter the water - the faster the reaction.

#2- the pan wasn't shallow enough. I was using a plastic tray 6" by 6" by 2" deep. I guess instead of the reaction spreading out- it went straight up and out of the cup.

invisibleuser

[cpdad]

invisible yep....from what i can tell it was a combination of using the coffee cup....and water being to hot....i redid this a few times a little while ago...i used a heaping teaspoon....very hot water exploded again......i knew it would ;D....half a cup of hot water....it boiled to the top of the cup and ran over a little.

next time ill use a bigger container...and the water wont be to hot.

i used arm and hammer baking soda...its sodium carbonate...which can cause explosions according to this guy...post 38 of this link....some other hints here also...kev.

www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/172/Mark-Frauenfelder-Mad-Professor-page02.html

[invisibleuser]

Here's an article with a much better description of the process. The formula is a little different but the results are the same.

www.alaska.net/~meteor/Galvanic.pdf

Steve