Gold chains are one of the most beloved pieces of jewelry today. And it is not strange, because this accessory is used as a talisman, if you hang an amulet, cross or other talisman on it, or a style item, if you decorate the weaving with a special pendant.
In terms of wear, the gold chain is very comfortable. This metal practically does not interact with various chemical compounds that are present in our environment, due to which gold jewelry does not darken, practically does not become dirty or oxidize.
But sometimes different types of pollution still appear on the gold chain. Today we will just deal with what processes cause the darkening of the aurum, and how to clean the gold chain at home quickly and efficiently.
Why does the gold chain around my neck turn black
Gold from the chemical table, that is, in its pure form, is practically not used today for the production of jewelry. The reason for this is very simple: an alloy without impurities is very soft and cannot be used in everyday wear. To achieve the required level of hardness and strength, Aurum mixed with various metals:
- silver;
- platinum;
- palladium;
- copper;
- nickel.
The more impurities in the base gold alloy, the less environmentally resistant the product will be.
The more nickel and copper impurities in gold jewelry, the faster the jewelry blackens and oxidizes.
From what has been said it becomes obvious that one of the main reasons for the darkening or greening of the gold chain is low grade metal. The optimal proportion of gold in the alloy is 58,5%. If the percentage of aurum is higher, then the metal has a very beautiful shiny surface, but it becomes more brittle. To order, it is possible to make a product from gold with a breakdown above 585, but usually these are unique chains that are worn only on special occasions.
Low test less than 585 means a high content of copper (Cu), which oxidizes with pleasure upon contact with various substances. Cuprum actively reacts with multiple chemistry that is in our habitat with you:
- wastewater treatment products;
- cosmetics using sulfur;
- then a person;
- apartment dust;
- products of emissions from factories (there may be the entire periodic table there);
Items made of 375 samples with a high copper content blacken very quickly if not worn and cared for properly.
Now you understand that if your chain has darkened, then it has a sample of less than 585, and it needs to be more carefully looked after. Most often blackened low-grade chains, wedding rings and earrings, as these products are worn constantly and removed on extremely rare occasions. The same applies to crosses that people wear for years. As a result, the metal oxidizes under the influence of skin secretions and substances with which it comes into contact. Therefore, jewelers recommend removing, if possible, jewelry made of low-grade gold before going to bed or going to the shower.
As for our beloved ladies, they should be warned: take off your gold jewelry and do not put them on until cosmetics are not completely absorbed into the skin. The fact is that low-grade gold actively reacts with components in the composition of cosmetics or perfumes, and dark spots appear on its surface.
There is an opinion that any jewelry with a large composition of copper in the alloy oxidizes much faster if it is worn by a sick person. There is no way to deny such an idea, since when certain ailments occur in the human body, the level of sulfur rises, which leads to fleeting pollution of the wearable chain. However, if the chain is random, i.e. suddenly, it darkened, it was impossible to breed a panic. You should not immediately run to the doctors in a hurry and say that you are dying. Perhaps something has changed in the atmosphere around you, at least some other chemistry has been added to the running water.
How to clean a gold chain at home to make it shine
Now let's analyze the simplest and most active ways to save gold chains. They can all be divided into three categories:
- mild or prophylactic;
- active;
- aggressive.
The first cleaning group usually involves the simplest ways that you can quickly clean a gold chain at home without the use of special types of chemicals, tools and skills.
An easy way to clean a gold chain from blackness
Chief, affectionate and the most reliable way is to wash the gold chain in soapy water.
What will you need prepare:
- clean water;
- soft shreds of cloth (you can take lint-free wipes that are used to wipe glasses);
- liquid soap or soap shavings;
- clean container;
- gloves;
- clock for tracking time.
About water. It is advisable to use drinking or distilled water in the process of bathing the gold chain from dirt. The contaminants that caused the darkening are very often found precisely in running water that flows from the tap. Therefore, it is not advisable to use this liquid at all.
Distilled water you won’t find it in the kitchen - this is obvious, but you can buy it in almost any motorist store.
Rinsing container It is desirable to pre-sterilize over water vapor. This can be done by simply putting a saucepan of drinking water on the fire, boiling it, placing an ordinary kitchen colander over the saucepan and placing a ceramic bowl on top. It is not advisable to use plastic, as it can melt from the high temperature of boiling water. This rarely happens, but it still happens.
Soap is better to use baby. It contains, as the manufacturers say, the minimum amount of heterogeneous fragrant chemistry. And it is better to take soap without any smell - this is also an additional cosmetic product that can cause contamination of the chain.
If there is no liquid soap, then you can cook shavings. To do this, take the same baby soap and just rub it on a fine kitchen grater. And clean the grater, and prepare the powder.
Gloves preferably always used. Firstly, they protect your manicure, if a woman has to clean the gold chain at home. Secondly, it is always and everywhere recommended to accustom yourself to use protective equipment when working with even the safest types of chemistry. It is better and safer for health, because a good habit will never be superfluous.
Procedure:
- pour 0,5 liters of water into the container;
- add a tablespoon of liquid soap or soap shavings to the liquid;
- stir all means;
- soak your chain and leave it alone for 10 ... 20 minutes - this is necessary so that the soap enters all the narrowest places of the jewelry;
- then take a piece of matter and lightly wipe all the links from beginning to end;
- drain the liquid and wash the container;
- rinse the chain in clean water until the liquid stops foaming;
- wipe the decoration dry;
- can be worn.
Usually this method is very effective if there are no problematic spots on the chain, which are caused by the presence of inorganic chemical compounds. The method, as you have noticed, is very easy to organize at home.
Active cleaning methods
For medium dirty chains you can add a teaspoon of salt to the soap solution that we described above. If you did not know, then salt has a powerful cleansing property. It usually acts as an antiseptic, preventing the spread of contaminants, especially those of organic origin, such as human sweat.
And also salt excellent protection against rust. It often happens that precious gold chains are stored in ordinary tea tins. Each of us will definitely have one on a shelf in the kitchen or garage. These miracle containers are in no way intended to store jewelry, as when moisture gets in, the metal quickly rusts and leaves marks on jewelry.
If the contamination on the chain is strong enough, then you can clean the gold by preparing a solution that will contain some of the soap, as we wrote above, and ammonia.
It should be remembered that it is strictly forbidden to use laundry soap because it contains a fairly large amount of aggressive alkali.
What we are preparing:
- a tablespoon;
- clean water;
- bathing container;
- soap or soap shavings;
- ammonia;
- gloves;
- soft pieces of fabric.
What do:
- prepare a solution. The hottest water is poured into a glass dish and the remaining ingredients of the product are placed. One glass of water requires one teaspoon of ammonia and one tablespoon of soap.
- the mixture is thoroughly mixed until completely dissolved.
- gold chains are immersed for 1…2 hours.
- after that, the gold must be taken out, washed in clean water.
- dry the chain with a soft cloth.
This method is quite common, but still considered sparing. With its help, it is impossible to remove sufficiently old pollution, which has not been exposed to any influences for many years.
Powerful cleaning methods or how to clean a gold chain to a shine
Option No. 1. A more active method is to use baking soda and foil.
Cleaning this way again will take all day or all night.
Cook:
- a couple of glasses of water;
- one and a half tablespoons of baking soda;
- cloth for drying and polishing;
- clean container.
Order Action:
- A glass of water must first be boiled.
- Add baking soda to boiling water.
- The foil is laid out on the bottom of an empty container.
- The chain is laid out here.
- The prepared solution of boiling water is poured into a container.
- Leave the jewelry in the solution for 10 ... 12 hours.
- After the chain must be rinsed and dried.
This method is very good and usually works well, but it cannot be used for jewelry with stones. For example, if your chain has a pendant with an insert, then it must first be removed. If the chain is directly instructed by stones, then with home methods you need to be as careful as possible. Otherwise, you may spoil the appearance of the pebbles.
Option No. 2 - soda, water and detergent.
Getting Ready:
- a piece of cotton natural fabric;
- a glass of boiling water;
- tablespoon;
- soda;
- dishwashing liquid.
It is desirable to take the last chemistry without color and smell. But it is unlikely that you will find such a miracle in a modern store. Therefore, the requirement can be limited to at least a colorless dishwashing detergent.
The order of the procedure:
- In a glass or metal container, place a piece of cloth equal to the diameter of the container.
- Put the chain on top.
- Then fill everything with a solution consisting of a glass of boiling water, a spoonful of soda and half a spoonful of dishwashing liquid.
- The container is placed on a small fire.
- The solution should boil for about half an hour.
- After that, put the saucepan in a warm place so that the water cools down slowly.
- Next, the jewelry is washed in clean water and dried with a soft cloth.
This method usually clears everything that is possible. The method can even remove hair from the chain. After all, hot water and a bunch of solvents contribute to the breakdown of a variety of contaminants.
Option No. 3 - Let's go to the garage.
Usually garage workshops are equipped with a huge variety of tools, ranging from ordinary screwdrivers, and ending even with metal melting furnaces and chrome plating baths. This is the place we need. Ask which of the men has an ultrasonic cleaner.
Ultrasonic cleaners remove dirt from jewelry with ultrasound: the items are placed in a cleaning liquid, then a machine is turned on that emits ultrasonic waves (it creates vibrations in the liquid that break down dirt particles accumulated on the surface of your jewelry). They can clean parts of your jewelry that can't be cleaned using more standard methods.
As a cleaning solution you can use jewelry that you can buy in the store. Alternatively, you can make your own cleaning fluid. Fill the tank with water and add a tablespoon of ammonia, some dishwashing liquid and you're done. You can turn on the machine and let it run without products for 5-10 minutes so that the solution mixes well.
One of the common mistakes people make when using ultrasonic cleaning is cold water in the tank. For the cleaning solution to work best, it must be hot. There are purifiers that have a built-in heater to ensure that the solution is heated. However, these models can be much more expensive than regular ones. All you have to do is just heat up the water before pouring it into the tank (just don't bring the water to a boil). After that, you can mix ammonia and dishwashing liquid.
Cleaning process.
- After pouring the cleaning fluid, place your chain inside. Do not put too many products at once, so as not to scratch the jewelry.
- Turn on the device and let it run until the jewelry is clean. (Depending on the degree of contamination of the elements, this time usually varies from 1 to 20 minutes.)
- After cleaning is complete, turn off the device and leave the chains inside for another 5-10 minutes so that the dirt particles that were knocked off your products by the sound waves can fall to the bottom of the tank.
- After you take your jewelry out, you can lightly brush it with a soft brush to make sure any residual dirt is removed, especially from the chain clasps.
- Rinse the items to remove any remaining detergent and dry them with a soft cloth.
We hope you already feel like a gold chain cleaning pro. But sometimes it happens that no home experiments work even in combination. In this case, you need to contact a professional in the workshop, where a person can accurately determine the nature of the pollution and can, using special tools, remove everything that prevents your chain from shining.
