Restoring Cloudy Ruby Rings After Tarn-X Exposure

Question
My ruby ring is now somewhat cloudy and I believe it may be from not removing it while cleaning some silver using Tarnex.  Is there any possible way to restore it?

Answer
Hi, Susan.

You are not the first person who has rings with some discoloration from a similar experience. The worse cases are when rings are left in the cleaner overnight or several hours; then we have a customer who believes all is lost and is quite distraught.

Actually, silver cleaner like this will generally do no real damage to the ring but can create a cloudiness on the surface where the solutions have removed some tarnish from the metal and other effects. Yes, karat gold will tarnish some but the color is not dramatic, only making the jewelry look a bit darker.

Yes, it is possible to restore your ring to a factory shine surface. However, this is not generally a do-it- yourself process.  You could take a good jewelry polishing cloth and rub and rub but the results would not be the best. I suggest taking the ring to a jeweler to have the ring polished. This is not a time consuming job and the results will surprise you at how good things look when done.

Right now, depending where you are, Christmas season is the busiest of the year for jewelers and the job may have to wait until after the New Year.

If you want to try a cloth rub, do not use one of the basic two sided ones with a red "rouge" side and a final wiping side. The best are the newer chemically treated ones such as Sunshine Cloth.   Other brands are out there and do essentially the same thing. A jeweler may have these in stock.

The particular brand Sunshine Cloth is sold by a company called Rio Grande (no on line catalog) and some jewelers and many finer crafts stores use Rio as a vendor of products.  If a store has an account with Rio Grande, they can get you a Sunshine cloth, or a couple.

Note, if the ring is plated and not solid, a jeweler will not  polish it since the plate will be damaged. With a ruby, I suspect this ring is solid and can be polished just fine. No fret, nothing is lost and the polished ring should look better than it did the day before you cleaned the silver.

God Bless and Peace. Thomas. December 15, 2007  6:45PM