Cleaning Jewelry The RIGHT Way

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Gemsnob
Posts: 2504
Joined: 4 years ago

Re: Cleaning Jewelry The RIGHT Way

Post by Gemsnob » 4 years ago

Gemaholic wrote:
4 years ago
Blossom wrote:
4 years ago
Gemaholic wrote:
4 years ago


Hi @Blossom I answered you yesterday but you may have not seen it. I too had a moonstone that turned yellow. Warm water with soap is what you're supposed to use. The salt thing is coming from metaphysical sites telling you how to cleanse it, but not the way we are talking about. Do not put it in salt. Moonstone is part of the feldspar family and it's only 6 on the Moh's scale. Other chemicals can easily weaken the stone and it can crack along the cleavage. As far as it turning yellow, I too have done research because it didn't make sense to me in terms of chemistry. What I came across was it tends to turn yellow if it was a fake moonstone that has been coated. The other suggestion I found was the silver being tarnished which makes the stone appear yellow as it is peeking through, but my moonstone does not have a silver backing, so that isn't the reason. If it's turning yellow and you tried cleaning it in warm, soapy water, then you might be in the same boat I am in...wondering if it's real or not.
Thanks Gemaholic! When you're not too involved in educating others here on the forum, would you please explain what type of coating you are referring to? And if I understand correctly, this coating is covering up a mystery stone & if the coating is somehow removed the adularescence (sure I didn't spell that correctly) is gone?

Whew you have my brain in overdrive! Hope we don't all overload your patience & thanks again!
When it comes to scientific stuff like chemicals and geology, my patience is infinite, so ask away! I try to explain things simply without using too much scientific jargon!

As far as the coatings go, there are jewelers that try to sell fake moonstone by putting a coating on to mimic the adularescence that a natural moonstone exhibits. My moonstone no longer has any play of color and is dull. I can also see coating scraped off even with the naked eye! I also have collected my own natural moonstone and even rainbow moonstone and this mystery stone just looks so bad compared to rough pieces I found myself. They claim all their stones are from the best sources in the world, well then why am I finding better quality rough pieces here in California? On another note, California people should check out Moonstone Beach!

Do you see their emeraldine quartz and watermelon quartz? Those colors were achieved with coatings. They do that with some of their topaz as well. Like I said, it’s clear my moonstone had a coating on it as I can see the splotches and parts of the coating scraping off. Very said. It never was stated that it was altered in any way.
I believe the colored quartz is triplets where as mystic topaz is chemical vapor deposition....a coating. You have to clean carefully. I wonder about the Moonstone. Seems if they can create Opalite that maybe they can create something similar to Moonstone.
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