Home › Leather, Ink, and Miscellaneous › Leather, Ink, and Miscellaneous: Jewelry

Leather, Ink, and Miscellaneous: Jewelry

CARE OF JEWELRY To Keep Jewelry at its best it should be properly stored when not in use and occasionally cleaned and polished, or recolored, when necessary, to restore its original luster. Most jewelry contains more or less alloy which will tarnish, and articles of silver are especially likely to tarnish by contact with substances containing silver, or by fumes of sulphur which are often present in the atmosphere.

It should be remembered that 30 per cent to 50 per cent of rubber consists of sulphur; hence rubber bands and articles containing rubber should never be brought in close proximity to fine silver articles.

To Store Jewelry. - When not in use, jewelry may be covered with a thin film of collodion dissolved in ether or alcohol.

Or laid away in boxes covered with boxwood sawdust, which may be obtained from any jeweler. To Clean Jewelry. - To clean articles of gold or silver, use castile soap and an old soft toothbrush or jeweler's brush, and wash carefully. Rinse in clear cold water, lay in a box of boxwood or other sawdust, and shake gently until dry. Rings containing gems should be removed when the hands are being washed, or their luster will be impaired. To clean a gold or silver chain, put it in a small glass bottle with warm suds of castile soap and a little whiting or prepared chalk. Shake well, rinse with cold water, and dry in sawdust.

To Polish Jewelry. - To polish gold jewelry, make a paste of whiting with sal volatile, cover the article, and let dry. Then brush off with an old toothbrush or polish with chamois.

Or put in a glass vessel 2 ounces of sulphate of iron (green vitriol), and gradually add water, stirring with a glass rod until all is dissolved. Use no more water than is necessary. Add carbonate of ammonia gradually until all the iron falls as a sediment. Let the mixture settle and strain off the liquor through filter paper. Dry the pulverized iron by means of blotting paper. Place it in an earthenware cup or bowl or crucible, and heat it in a dark room until it glows softly. When cool, this is the best polishing powder that can be made.

Or take 2 ounces of hydrochloric acid and add iron filings, stirring with a glass rod until the acid has dissolved all it can. Add aqua ammonia until the iron is all precipitated from this solution. Dilute this solution with water and collect the sediment on filter paper, drying slowly in sunshine or with very gentle heat. To LEATHER, INK, AND MISCELLANEOUS 34 ounces of this substance add 1 ounces of sal ammoniac. This mixture has been for many years a trade secret of German gold workers, and commands a high price on the market.

To Brighten Jewelry.-Heat to a boil pint of soft water and pour it into a wide-mouthed glass bottle.

Add 1 ounce of cyanide of potassium and shake until dissolved. When cold, add fluid ounce of aqua ammonia and 1 fluid ounce of pure alcohol.

This mixture is a deadly poison and must not touch any part of the skin.

Even the fumes are most dangerous.

To clean jewelry, make a hoop of a bit of wire, and with this dip the articles in the solution for a few seconds, remove, and rinse in clear water. Then wash with soapsuds to thoroughly free from the cyanide, rinse, and dip in alcohol or benzine. To cause them to dry quickly, cover with sawdust. Cork the solution tightly for future use. Of course great care must be taken to keep this liquid out of the hands of children and careless persons. But if proper precautions are observed, it will be found to be one of the quickest ways to remove the tarnish from metallic articles and to give them their brightest luster. - To Color Gold. Mix saltpeter, 3 ounces; green copperas, 1 ounce; white vitriol, 1 ounce; alum, 1 ounce.

This mixture gives yellow gold a dark or reddish color. The addition of a little blue vitriol gives a darker shade.