Whether you’re finishing your own work or advising a customer on aftercare, cleaning jewellery well is a skill worth getting right. Do it wrong and you scratch metal or crack a stone; do it right and a piece looks new for years. Here’s how to clean by hand, by ultrasonic and by steam — safely.
Hand cleaning: the safe default
For most pieces, most of the time, warm soapy water is all you need — and it can’t go wrong. Half-fill a bowl with warm (not hot) water, add a drop of mild washing-up liquid, and let the piece soak a few minutes to loosen grease and grime. Work gently into settings and recesses with a soft brush — a baby toothbrush or a proper jewellery brush, never anything stiff enough to scratch. Rinse in clean water — put a sieve or the plug in the drain first, since more jewellery is lost down plugholes than to any thief — and pat dry with a soft, lint-free cloth.
For fingerprints and the first bloom of tarnish on plain metal, a proprietary polishing cloth brings the shine back without removing metal — keep one in the drawer and rub a piece after wearing. This gentle routine suits everything, crucially including the soft and porous stones the powered methods below can damage. Cloths and finishing kit live in Polishing & Finishing.
Ultrasonic cleaners: powerful, not universal
An ultrasonic cleaner is a small tank of water and detergent that a transducer vibrates at high frequency, creating microscopic bubbles that implode against the piece and blast grime from places a brush can’t reach — behind stones, inside chain links, under a bezel. For chains, cast textures and grubby findings it is superb, and it’s the fastest way to clean a batch.
That same violent action is exactly why it isn’t for everything. The cavitation that lifts dirt can also shake a loose stone out of its setting, worsen an existing fracture, or drive water into a porous stone. Check settings are tight first, use the proper detergent, and warm the piece gently, not suddenly. Lower and lift pieces with PVC-coated tweezers rather than dropping them onto the tank floor, where the vibration is fiercest and the coating won’t scratch them. And, above all, know what must never go in.
The stones that must never go in
Some gemstones are damaged — sometimes ruined — by ultrasonic or steam. Learn this short list and keep anything on it to hand cleaning only:
- Emerald — nearly always oiled or resin-filled to hide fractures; ultrasonic and steam strip the filling, and the fractures can then crack right through.
- Opal — soft, porous and often holding water; thermal shock and vibration can craze or shatter it, and doublets and triplets can delaminate.
- Pearl and other organics (coral, amber, jet) — porous and soft; the process dulls the nacre and can loosen pearls from their mount.
- Turquoise, malachite, lapis and other porous or dyed stones — they drink up water and detergent, which discolours them and lifts any impregnation or dye.
The wider rule is simple: if a stone is soft, porous, heavily included, glued, dyed or fracture-filled, keep it out of both the tank and the steamer. When you don’t know how a stone has been treated — and most gems are treated somehow — default to hand cleaning. Untreated diamonds, sapphires and rubies generally take ultrasonic well; the doubt is always the setting and the treatment, never hardness alone.
Steam cleaning: heat and pressure
A steam cleaner fires a jet of hot, high-pressure steam that flashes away grease, polish residue and detergent film for a bright, dry, streak-free finish. It is the professional’s final flourish — ultrasonic then steam is how a workshop makes a repair look brand new.
Steam is gentler than ultrasonic in one way — no cavitation to loosen stones — but harsher in another: it is hot, and thermal shock cracks heat-sensitive and fracture-filled stones. The same forbidden list applies: no opal, emerald, pearl or turquoise. Hold the piece in coated tweezers or a clamp so the jet can’t fire it from your fingers, keep your hand clear of the steam, and let hot pieces cool in the air, not under a cold tap.
Dealing with tarnish
Tarnish is not dirt — it’s a film of silver sulphide that grows as silver reacts with sulphur in the air, and no amount of soapy water shifts it. For light tarnish, a polishing cloth or a mild silver cleaner brings it straight back. For heavier tarnish in detail and recesses, the honest fix is to polish it out — by hand, as in polishing jewellery by hand, or, for badly marked pieces, back to the buff and compound in our buff, mop and compound guide.
Avoid the folk-remedy foil-and-baking-soda “dip” on anything you value: it strips tarnish indiscriminately, can leave a dull grey cast, and will lift a deliberate oxidised patina. If a piece is meant to be bright, keep it bright with a cloth; if it’s meant to be dark, never dip it. Better still, prevent tarnish in the first place.
Storage, prevention and aftercare
The best cleaning is the one you never have to do. Silver tarnishes fastest in warm, humid, sulphur-rich air, so store pieces dry, cool and sealed from the air — a zip-lock bag with the air pressed out, or a box with an anti-tarnish strip, slows it dramatically. Keep pieces apart so harder stones don’t scratch softer metal, and take jewellery off before swimming, housework, or perfume and hand cream — those dull and corrode faster than wear does. Our full guide to anti-tarnish strategies for silver goes deeper.
If you’re a maker, the same methods clean up your own work: a pass through the tumbler brightens and work-hardens a whole batch before boxing, and a final steam leaves them spotless. A clean piece photographs better too, so clean before you shoot — our guide to photographing handmade jewellery explains why. And when you sell, pass the care on: a short aftercare note — how to clean the piece and what never to do to it — protects your work, saves a customer a ruined stone, and shows you know the craft.
Find cleaning cloths, brushes and finishing kit in Polishing & Finishing, and PVC-coated tweezers and handling tools in Tweezers & Soldering.