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)!