Did the ammonia damage the setting

[amyrock]

I recently tried to clean my ring with some mixture of detergent, ammonia and water, and then boiled. After the cleaning, it seemed that my platinum setting has become dull... Can this way of cleaning actually damage the platinum? Can the dullness be polished away? Could this way of cleaning actually damage the stone? Has anyone ever had this happened to them? Any advise could help. Thanks.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Not possible.
But you should never boil it - put into a mixture that has had boiling water added is usually OK - but not boiling as the phone rings and 1/2 hour later it has boild dry and gone red hot.
Even then the platinum would not be damaged.

Is it your imagination?

 

[amyrock]

Gary, thanks for the reply. Do you think the ring can be polished to have the shine again?

 

[Kaleigh]

I'm not Garry but the answer is yes!!

 

[msdarlinjoy]

Amyrock,

I am sure that what you are seeing is just some residual from the soap and cleaners. I definately would take it in and have them buff and polish up like new again.

What I usually do to clean really dirty rings is:

Spray ring with window cleaner.
Boil water ... pour water into a coffee cup and then put the ring into it. I let it sit for a good 5 minutes, and then take it out carefully as it will be hot, and take an baby toothbrush to it, and then rinse with warm water.

I would be careful with what kind of stones you clean with boiling type water though, I know some can''t take the temp. extreems.

Also, careful mixing soap and different cleaners, you can actually make a deadly gas.

Take care,

 

[RockDoc]

While this isn''t definately what the problem is you are experiencing, the answer COULD be that whatever you used removed the finish plating of the item.

Platinum is the "mystery" metal. How it finishes can always leave you bewildered at times.

I had a ring come in for analysis last week that was chrome plated. It was very shiny, but made the platinum ring look "cheap". Commonly, platinum pieces are rhodium plated but if polished carefully, attentively and well they do not have to be rhodium plated.

Depending upon the mixture and how the plating is done can "undone", particularly if the item was thoroughly polished, and made "shiny" by plating.

Mark Morrel''s pieces in platinum have a totally incredible polish and luster to them, and he does NOT rhodium plate them at all. Getting a superior polish on items is an art, and it takes a true artisan to make that happen.

Using " home brewed" cleaning mixtures can cause damage, be unhealthy and cause other problems.

Stick with the formulas specifically formulated for cleaning jewelry.


I doubt the ammonia did cause any damage that you were describing, but maybe something else did.
Caustic substances play havoc with jewelry, chlorine being one of the biggest enemies of some metals. Just a slight residue of bleach can do damage.


Rockdoc

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 1/28/2006 12:31:42 AM
Author: RockDoc

Using '' home brewed'' cleaning mixtures can cause damage, be unhealthy and cause other problems.

Rockdoc

Thanks for the info. Could you kindly specify what kind of "home-brewed" mixtures are you warning against? Thank you!

 

[RockDoc]

Hi Lynn

There are too many different "detergents and cleaning solutions" to sit an name which one might attack the wide variety of alloys used in rings.

There was an insurance claim over the loss of a diamond in a four prong mounting, that had one prong that severed, resulting in the loss of the diamond. Upon examining the mounting there was evidence that the prong had been retipped using low karat solder ( there was oxidation coloring on that prong). There was evidence that the gold ring had been subjected to a caustic substance that made the prong brittle, as the caustic chemical attacked the low karat solder.

Upon questioning the insured, she told the insurance company she had used a bowl to soak the ring clean with dishwashing detergent in it, that previously she soaked some stain clothes in with bleach. Even though she rinsed out the bowl, there was enough residue from the bleach to cause the damage.

In that the metal used in ring are alloyed with a great amount of different metals, the balance of the different alloys and what they are, are just too numerous to know which is in which item of jewelry, and there are so many different detergents and cleaners not specifically designed to clean jewelry that people use.

Certainly repairs made with solder and chlorine, are the two most obvious and most common villians.

Going to a hotel and sitting in a hot tub that was disinfected with "who knows what" could be an issue. Pools and hot tubs certainly have some content of chlorine in the water. Once exposure in a pool isn''t most likely that bad, but repeated exposure of a ring to a heavily chlorinated pool over time would sometimes, and most likely have an affect

Also subjecting colored stones that have been oiled or bleached to extremely hot water could cause the treatment to "untreat" itself.

Fracture filling material can also be "dissolved" necessitating the treatment to be redone again. Fracture filling compounds are in diamonds that are fracture filled as well as other colored stones that are pourous, such as emerald.

Jewelry cleaners can be bought by the gallon and they aren''t that pricey in those quantities, and one purchase would probably last the average consumer almost a lifetime.

Sorry I can''t be more explicit about which cleaners affect which alloys.

Rockdoc

 

[blodthecat]

This sounds like an obviously question...but are you sure it is definitely platinum?

The other thing that''s confusing me is that why on earth would anyone plate a platinum ring????

bloddie

 

[msdarlinjoy]

Thanks Rockdoc!

I know bleach is corrosive, and I do not use it much, however, at the same time I didn''t think about the "Hot Tub"! When I go to the gym, hotel etc ... one of the first smells that over come me is the "bleachy" smell. I didn''t even think twice about what it is doing to my jewelry. I already know what it does to my hair & skin.

Thanks for the info!

 

[finerthings]

Date: 1/28/2006 12:31:42 AM
Author: RockDoc
Commonly, platinum pieces are rhodium plated but if polished carefully, attentively and well they do not have to be rhodium plated.

I have never heard of platinum being plated...did you mean to say white gold?

 

[Lynn B]

Not Rockdoc, but I know I have heard of platinum being rhodium plated, too. When I first heard it, I thought, "Why?! That''s crazy!" But I''ve heard about it enough since then that I just think, "OK... whatever!"

 

[Lynn B]

OH, forgot to say THANKS to Rockdoc for the great info. I had forgotten about chlorine/bleach, too... although I thought it was mainly caustic to gold. Platinum, too?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Date: 1/28/2006 2:42:39 PM
Author: Lynn B
OH, forgot to say THANKS to Rockdoc for the great info. I had forgotten about chlorine/bleach, too... although I thought it was mainly caustic to gold. Platinum, too?

Nothing in a human living environment attacks platinum. Not even aqua regia (nitric and hydrochloric acid).

Mercury can damage the surface of gold because they are mutually soluable (and it might also form an amalgum with platinum?)

Chlorine attacks solders in lower Karat golds.

Note amalgam
Any alloy of mercury with other metals. Most metals will form amalgams, except iron and platinum. Amalgam is used in dentistry for filling teeth, and usually contains copper, silver, and zinc as the main alloying ingredients. This amalgam is pliable when first mixed and then sets hard, but the mercury leaches out and may cause a type of heavy-metal poisoning.

Amalgamation, the process of forming an amalgam, is a technique sometimes used to extract gold and silver from their ores. The ores are ground to a fine sand and brought into contact with mercury, which dissolves the gold and silver particles. The amalgam is then heated to distil off the mercury, leaving a residue of silver and gold. The mercury is recovered and reused.

Almagamation to extract gold from its ore has been in use since Roman times.

© Research Machines plc 2006. All rights reserved. Helicon Publishing is a division of Research Machines plc.

 

[Mara]

I did the put the ring in boiling water on the stove thing once and I felt like it left my ring looking unpolished and dirty after as well, kind of a random thing. I was panicky for a few minutes but after I cleaned it was fine. Now I just put it in my ultrasonic with microwaved water (1m) and it''s perfect. I''m never doing the boiling pot on the stove thing again.

As for cleaning, I use Mr Clean and dishwashing with hot water on my ring and it comes out great. I figure if you can use AMMONIA on something like your platinum and diamond ring then really what else can eat the platinum? Besides diamonds!! But who knows..maybe it is that mystery ''cocktail'' of a few cleaners together that could prove distastrous. I figure use what you know works and doesn''t cause damage!

 

[RockDoc]

Maybe I need to have written my previous post a little clearer.

The things that attack the jewelry doesn''t usually attack the gold or platinum, it attacks the alloys.

When a piece is soldered, a lot of guys that do bench work use lower karat solder because the solder will flow at a lower temperature than the gold in the item, the lower the karat solder the lower a temperature it will flow into whatever is being worked on (such as the slit when a ring is sized). Why is the done ? If high karat solder is used it has to be heated more to flow, sometimes very close to not only getting the solder to flow - but in some cases dangerously close to melting the gold itself.

If you''re not careful with the torch and controlling the temperature you heat it to, you can end up with the entire piece melting into a ball. I think anyone that has done benchwork, has made their share of melted items of jewelry when they started out learning. When I did this sort of stuff years ago I certainly melted my fair share of lightweight earrings, and prongs, and even ring shanks.

But that is how you learn.....how many will admit to those mistakes? heheheh

Rockdoc

 

[perry]

Gary is right in that platinum and gold by themselves is very stable - and not affected by much.

RockDoc touched on the issue with the alloying elements being a problem and mentioning that solder has those elements.

What he did not mention was the fact that you do not have a pure platinum ring, and people do not have pure gold rings. You have an platinum alloy ring - and depending what the alloying elements are - it is possible for common household chemicals to affect the ring. Same is true for the gold alloys.

Concerning mercury amalgams and fillings: Many studies have been done and the level of mercury released from filings is extreemly low. Only in rare cases where people are allergic to mercury do they seem to affect a persons health. A common dental health scam is to put a mercury detector that is 100 to 1000 times more sensitive than the standard and show someone that they have a problem with their mercury amalgam fillings - so the dentist can now get paid for replacing all of your fillings. The real problem is that in most cases the various other materials do not stand up as well as the amalgam fillings - and you end up getting those replaced more frequently as well (personal experience on the failure of those other filling materials).

Most mercury accumulation in people come from eating fish. Large ocean fish and larger freshwater fish in certain areas are the worst.

For example: Common advisories within the US are that certain people (pregnant - nursing, and specific health problems) should not eat more than one tunafish sandwich or saled a week or face mercury poisening issues. Other fish may also need to be limited.

A half a dozen years ago I read a study on the source of mercury in the food chain. It is virtually always traced to atmospheric mercury - with about 1/3 of it being of natural origen and 2/3 of it being from burning of coal - largly for heating and power production. Note that fully 50% of the coal buring sourced mercury comes from the small amount of coal burned in China as Chinese coal is extreemly high in mercury content. The other 50% comes from all the coal burned in the rest of the world.

Perry

 

[denverappraiser]

Boiling ammonia and clorine is a BAD idea. I agree with everyone above about what it takes to damage platinum but it's not your jewelry I'm worried about, it's your lungs. Both of these chemicals produce seriously poisonous fumes. Find a different recipie.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver

 

[msdarlinjoy]

Yes, Denverappraiser is correct!

I know first hand from my MOM! I had to drive her to the hospital with her head hanging out the window when I was 15, no permit, just drove in a parking lot a couple times ... very scarry!!!

It took a long time for her lungs to heal. She is lucky she didn''t die.

Becareful!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Well now that we are right off topic

Date: 1/28/2006 7:15:34 PM
Author: perry
Most mercury accumulation in people come from eating fish. Large ocean fish and larger freshwater fish in certain areas are the worst.

For example: Common advisories within the US are that certain people (pregnant - nursing, and specific health problems) should not eat more than one tunafish sandwich or saled a week or face mercury poisening issues. Other fish may also need to be limited.

Perry

Unfortunately that advice (which is largely peculiar to USA) may have led to a lowering of IQ by about 6%, especially when the limited amount of Omega 3 oils are consumed with a larger proportion of oils derived from Soya products - which I am told is more common in USA than other countries.

That fish advice, according to the latest research, may have led to a dumbing down effect.
They aslo found a high correlation with criminal and anti social behaviour.

The study was 15 years over more than 1000 families I believe and had good stat''s tests.

 

[Rod]

Get a ''JewelJet'' for $99 (US) and you won''t need chemicals at all. It really works and while I still use a soft toothbrush and jewerly cleaner daily, I use the JewelJet once a week for that just steamed clean by your jeweler look, which is the cleanest your diamond can be.

With the amount of money most have tied up in a high quality diamond jewelry, $99, doesn''t seem like much of an investment to keep your pieces looking "showroom" new, IMHO..........