Compiled by Shawna Kulpa and Tina Wojtkielo Snyder
When a jewelry piece comes in for repair, the first thing you should do before attempting any bench heroics is clean it. Here is a collection of quick tips for cleaning up some common items brought in for repair.
• Because they’re worn continually, watch bracelets can accumulate a lot of dirt and grime between the links. Arthur Anton Skuratowicz of The Jewelry Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has an easy way to clean a watch bracelet: Remove it from the watch, hold it together with a twisted paperclip, and stretch it around a tea strainer, which will open up the links. You can either put it in the ultrasonic to clean it or soak it in denture cleaner, which will remove much of the grime. You can also use the strainer as a steam mandrel for cleaning out dirt between the links (above). Keep a paper towel underneath to prevent the debris from splashing around.
If you don’t have a tea strainer handy, you can use a set of cooking tongs to spread out the bracelet links (above).
• An old diamond ring arrives at your shop for repair, but it’s in desperate need of a cleaning before anything can be done to it. You know the kind: A ring with prongs so worn down that the diamonds are practically being held in place by only dirt. To prevent any of the stones from winding up at the bottom of your ultrasonic, try this trick from Alan Revere of the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco: Place the ring in a small Ziploc bag and fill it with ultrasonic solution. Then seal the bag closed, drop it in the ultrasonic, and flip the switch. If any of the stones wind up falling out, they’ll stay safely inside the bag.
• Another great tool for cleaning up dirty old rings could be found in your bathroom cabinet. According to Don Peterson of Summit Gold in Frisco, Colorado, an inexpensive, battery-powered rotary toothbrush is ideal for many jewelry-cleaning tasks. "Since it rotates and vibrates back and forth, I find it works well to clean rouge out of hard places, in conjunction with the ultrasonic," he says. The brush can be used with water and a little rouge to clean the areas between Tiffany prongs and, because the head is removable, the bristles can be trimmed to reach inside ring shanks.
• Sometimes, in order to please a special customer, you may promise to resize her ring while she waits. Of course, that ring may also be filthy, filled with lotion, cream, dirt, and oil. You don’t have time to waste waiting for the ultrasonic to do its job. In a situation like this, you may want to try the "acid cleaner" trick from jeweler Fabio Penuela of Continental Diamond in Minneapolis. He’s found that putting a filthy ring in the dirt and helps it come off easier in the ultrasonic. He suggests filling a small metal jar, such as one normally used to serve cream with coffee, and cutting open the handle so you can hook it onto the side of the ultrasonic. Then grab a small plastic canister with a lid that will fit inside the jar and fill it with hot pickle. Drop the ring in the canister and close the top. Then fill the jar halfway with ultrasonic solution, place the canister inside, and hook it onto the side of your ultrasonic. In less than an hour even the dirtiest ring will be clean and ready for sizing.
• Jurgen Maerz, technical consultant to Platinum Guild International in New York City, offers this tip for quickly and easily cleaning diamonds from an old ring that need to be remounted: Place a small amount of table salt into your hand and then add the diamonds. Rub the salt and diamonds together. The abrasiveness of the salt will clean the stones without scratching them. Once the stones are clean, just rinse the salt away with warm water.
• A customer’s diamond jewelry gets treated to a three-hour spa service prior to repair at Krombholz Jewelers in Cincinnati. "We boil our customers’ diamond jewelry in an electric hot pot filled with water and mild detergent," says Lee Krombholz, the store’s owner. "After about two and a half hours, we unplug the hot pot and allow the jewelry to cool completely before rinsing it in warm water and running it in an ultrasonic cleaner for a minute. The diamonds come out clean and sparkling, ready for repair."