AboutThomas Expertise Have a question about jewelry repair or working with precious metal jewelry and gemstones? I am a working professional bench jeweler, involved everyday with setting stones in mountings, designing and making jewelry, repairing and limited custom manufacture. Over 30 years experience. If you work with jewelry as a hobby or as a profession, I might be able to help. I deal with the retail business, not mass production. Ask privately if you wish. See the box for that: It keeps your question between us. Please DO NOT ask MAKER'S MARKS, but metal quality marks are fine to ask. Please DO NOT ask diamond prices. See a gemologist for that.
Experience I have near 35 years experience at the sort of jewelry work I do.
Education/Credentials Education is English/Physics! Started in human resources, to advertising, to jewelry...wow, what a road. Now a jeweler for many years. I have had formal training in jewelry work and many shared experiences with top grade jewelers. We just never know were we will go or be. Follow your best, your dreams, with some discretion! Don't let the work tear up your body along the way.
I did a stupid thing. For Christmas, my fiance bought me a Tiffany & Co. silver bar pendant. Unfortunately, silver turns my CLOTHES, and it leaves a nice, dark, yucky area where the necklace lays on the fabric! WELL, I had always heard that applying a thin coat of CLEAR nail polish will keep silver from turning you, your clothes, etc. WELL, I did this! It helped somewhat, but STILL it turns my clothes.
While it didn't appear to actually RUIN the necklace, and this is called a snake neckalce, it DID make it a bit stiff, plus a bit DULL looking. :-( I tried applying a tiny, tiny TINY bit of finger nail polish remover on a paper towel and ran this under water! I then tried to gently rub the snake necklace, hoping it would take off the nail polish and restore the necklace to it's original shine AND make it pliable like it was before. I'm having trouble getting this polish off, but I thought I'd ask you if you had any suggestions!
I'll try anything. If you have any recommendations on how I can "restore" my necklace and/or get it back to it's original shine and make it pliable again, I would really appreciate it.
SORRY this is so long, but I want to be thorough. I've only tried cleaning it once AND I used very very little of nail polish remover. I wonder if I should try that stuff that smells HORRIBLE, Tarn-x. Actually, I think Tarn-X is made specifically for silver, and other metals, but would tarn-x remove the finger nail polish?
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!
Beth :-)
Answer Dear Beth,
Here we go...
I wonder why silver turns and reacts to your clothing? Generally, a tarnish reaction is because of sulphur containing stuff or might be from the brand of laundry product. Do any clothes have a slight chlorine smell when laundered? Chlorine will do it. Some fabric softeners “might” but frankly I don't know the ingredients and don't have any in the house to check on that.
If the tarnish is “on” the silver, being caused by something else like cosmetics around the neckline, then the clothing will simply wipe the smudge off the silver onto your clothing, like running a polishing cloth along the chain but from movement on clothing as you wear the pendant and the snake chain.
Also, the fine links of the “snake chain” design tend to keep the nasty stuff inside whereas an open link chain would not do that. Any smudgy stuff inside the chain will work its way out onto your clothing, too.
THE NAIL POLISH. This is probably the easiest to remove and with no harm to the silver. I notice you are being careful with the nail polish remover, perhaps uncertain how that will affect the chain. I am glad you play it safe!
In fact, the main ingredient in polish remover used to be acetone, a stronger “nutty smelling solvent. Newer removers use other solvents but these appear safe for silver.
Acetone is the best way! The smallest bottles are generally about a pint and you don't need that much. If you can find a polish remover with acetone in it, instead of methyl ketones(?), go with the acetone based remover. This will not harm the silver. We use it all the time to remove nail polish from items we electroplate, with the nail polish used as a mask for areas to be left unplated.
Put the chain in a small glass jar, baby food size is fine. Cover with the remover, seal tightly and let it soak an hour or two. Take out, rinse well. The polish should be dissolved away!
I suggest getting a good “silver cloth” from a department or jewelry store, the chemical treated kind and not the kind with red polishing compounds in it. Wipe the chain down gently before wearing and do the same afterwards. Do the same with the bar pendant. Wipe gently and watch the black stuff come off onto the cloth. Then, wash gently in Joy or another mild dish detergent, rinse and dry. That is about the best preventive medicine you can use.
For a start, you might take the jewelry to a jewelry store for a good and thorough ultrasonic cleaning to remove any dirt caught inside the chain. Then, follow up with the home cleaning. I know this is a pain to do! Some folks can wear silver all day, all night long, all week with nary a touch of tarnish. Others cannot….body chemistry, cosmetics, etc. are the culprits.
You might consider a “rhodium plated” silver in the future to avoid these tarnish problems. The problem with that is the silver has a hard, garish look and looks more like chrome than the soft shine of sterling. Tiffany generally goes with sterling in the natural state, unaltered with a plated surface like rhodium. To have the items plated is not worth the cost and it will be difficult to find someone to do that. The process requires three layers, one of copper, one nickel, one of rhodium. Then, if repair is needed, the repair will show the natural silver and the color will not match. Those are the ups and downs of natural silver and rhodium plated goods.
Let me know if this helps! I sure hope so…if not, maybe you will have to go with “platinum”. : ) yeah!
