How To Take Care And Store Your Loose Gems

Loose gems are generally easy to care for compared to those elaborately designed jewelries. In fact, you need not go through all the trouble of polishing your loose gems ever so often. Nevertheless, since loose gemstones do gather dust and they may suffer from minor blemishes as time passes by, you should know how to take care of your loose gems and keep them on top quality. To help you care and store your gems, here are important tips for you.

Cleaning Your Loose Gems

Different types of stones have different degree of hardness. Experts rank stones according to level of hardness with level 5 being the hardest the most durable. If you are not familiar with these levels of hardness, you need to do some research in this area before you attempt at cleaning your loose gems. Why? Knowing the degree of hardness of the stones will give you an idea of how fragile the stones are and what sorts of soaps should you use to clean them with. For instance, diamonds are classified as level 5 when it comes to hardness so you can use any types of washing detergents or soaps to clean them up. The apasive texture of laundry or washing soap will not have any effect on the surface of the diamond. Bear in mind that diamonds are very tough stones. You cannot even chip it easily even if you want to.

On the other hand, if you have a collection of loose gems with hardness of 4 and below, you should not use laundry or washing them up. Stones like opal have sensitive surfaces so you need to make sure that you do not use anything apasive when you clean them. Moreover, gems like pearls are very sensitive to chemicals so you should never use soap or any chemicals for that matter when you clean them. Instead of using soap to clean your pearls, you simply use lukewarm water. Remember that once the surface of a loose gem gets scratched, you can never restore it to its former flawless glory. The worst part of it is that once a loose gem is scratched, its market value drastically goes down.

Storing Your Loose Gems

After cleaning your loose gems, dry them thoroughly with the use of cotton clothe or tissue paper. Once the stones are dry, you may place them inside a pouch made of soft materials and then store it inside your safe.