Top Ten Enemies of Gold Jewelry: #3

Bed Sheets.

And who doesn't love fresh, clean bedsheets? One of the great, simple pleasures of life, these household necessities aren't as innocent as you may think!

The dark secret lurks in what happens to your jewelry when you go to bed. While you are sweetly dreaming, your bedsheets act as a slow but steady sandpaper on your jewelry!

Prongs especially are at risk, since they stick up the highest and are relatively thin compared with other parts of the piece. As prongs wear thin, they become easier to bend or break, and when they do- you lose your stone!!

Prongs can, of course be retipped or crowns replaced as they wear out. Bringing your jewelry in to be cleaned and checked by a professional jeweler at least twice a year (just like getting your teeth cleaned!!) is essential to this, so that the jeweler can keep track of the wear patterns you have established. As prongs do wear thin, your jeweler can recommend preventative maintainance, or in the case of breakage, he/she can repair/replace as necessary to make sure your stones are tight and secure!

Jewelry is meant to be worn, so it is natural that it will eventually wear down and need repair. How quickly or how often it will need repair, however, is up to you! By taking it off before bed, you greatly increase the life of your ring, and protect your pendants! (Really, there aren't any chains out there designed to be worn to bed- you toss and they twist and the links stretch and the whole thing snaps! It is better to only wear your jewelry while you are concious!)

Top Ten Enemies of Gold Jewelry: #4

Chlorine.

There seems to be a trend of thinking you should keep your jewelry on when you go swimming- I mean, you wouldn't want it to get lost or stolen while you are splashing and having fun in the pool- right?

Unfortunately you ring runs into as much or greater danger by going into the water with you!!

Chlorine chemically reacts with the alloy metals in gold to form pits and cracks. Essentially, over time, it will eat away at your jewelry until it either looks like the surface of the moon or cracks into many pieces!

Rings or other jewelry should NEVER be cleaned with or come in contact with bleach (which is related to chlorine)!! This could result in a blackening of the gold and the appearance of small cracks- even in as little as a few hours!!

Tests have shown that a 14K gold ring soaked in household bleach for 24-36 hours will dissintgrate completely and be beyond all hope of repair!!

While pure gold shows no reaction to the bleach, gold jewelry is an alloy (10k, 14k, 18k etc.) consisting of 10/14/18 parts pure gold to 14/10/6 parts other metal(s). It is these other metals which dissolve in the bleach, but because the two metals become essentially one in the alloy, the pure gold cannot maintain the shape and integrity of the original piece.

Repairs are only a partial solution in this situation. When a crack or break is repaired, it is welded back together with gold solder (so that there isn't any karat difference between the piece and the joint), but when the alloy metals in the actual piece are depleted, no amount of solder can replace them! In fact, there is no way to repair chlorine damage to gold, short of melting it down, adding new metal, and re-casting it!

Since this is one of the enemies of gold that eventually results in unrepairable damage, it is even more important that you DO NOT wear your gold jewelry in the pool or hot tub, or while using household cleaners/ laundry agents containing bleach!! Even regular tap water contains trace amounts of chlorine, and over time can contribute to things like cracked prongs or shanks. This would take place over a long period of time, but we typically recommend removing your jewelry before washing hands, doing dishes, or taking a shower anyway (for both hygenic reasons and to keep it looking nice)!

Top 10 Enemies of Gold Jewelry: #5

Mercury.

Not the planet, but the Element. Also referred to as Quicksilver, Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

While not used in many things most people handle on a regular basis, mercury is used in thermometers, barometers, float valves, some electrical switches and other scientific apparatus as well as fluorescent bulbs.

So, even though the likelihood of mercury to gold contact is slim, if it does happen, you are in for some unpleasantness because of another unique property which mercury posesses.

When mercury comes into contact with gold, or most other metals, it actually dissolves to form an amalgam with it. This means that the 2 metals are now bonded into a new substance can cannot be separated (except by toxic means)!!

Mercury amalgams are actually useful or desireable- when made on purpose, such as dental fillings or the reflective coating on mirrors. However, when mixed with gold, it discolors your jewelry in an undesireable way.

The worst part is that the only way to separate the 2 is to heat the piece until the mercury vaporizes. In fact, this very process was used in 17th century France to create gold plated objects- just add mercury to gold and use it to coat an object, then heat it until the mercury is depleted thus leaving only a thin layer of gold behind! This process was, however, banned by the end of the 19th century because of the (obvious) harmful effects such as blindness!!

Some metals do not form amalgams with mercury, such as iron and platinum, but really- the best policy is don't play with mercury, and if for some odd reason you must- don't wear your jewelry!!