How to clean gemstones

  Sorry to be quiet so long; I've been traveling and most recently, publishing one hundred new gemstones to my Heart of Stone Studio.com website. But now I'm back and thinking of things of interest to share with you.

  Something that I thought would be helpful is to talk about cleaning and storing gemstones. I handle literally thousands of stones a year, and it is important for the stones to look their best when they arrive in my customers' mailboxes. Here are the ways that I clean gemstones:

  For cleaning cabochons, people use many different things. I've heard of people using Windex, ammonia, and a variety of glass cleaners. My choice is something I learned from a lapidarist: denatured alchohol. This is not rubbing alcohol or any alcohol that you can buy off the shelf. Unlike rubbing alcohol, denatured alcohol doesn't contain any extra ingredients, and the concentration of real alchohol is much higher. The only place I can get it is from a pharmacy, sometimes by special order. It is more expensive than rubbing alcohol, but is still affordable and a bottle lasts quite a while, as long as you don't let it sit open for more than a few minutes at a time (it evaporates quickly if exposed to air). I order two bottles at once; as long as the bottle is kept tightly closed, it will keep for months. Be sure to store it away from heat, direct sunlight, or open flames.

   The denatured alcohol works great on agates, jaspers--any dense, non-organically-based stone. It cleans off glue, tape, dirt, grease, fingerprints, and reveals any shine that might be hidden under grime. If you have a stone with lots of gunk on the back, you can put the denatured alcohol on a 3M green plastic scouring pad and use that to get things clean.

     For the fronts of stone, I wouldn't recommend using the scouring pad--you don't want to risk scratching areas of the stone that might be softer. Most people grab a paper towel or a soft cotton cloth, but I've found that both of these leave a ton of lint behind (which shows up in my closeup photographs). Instead, I use microfiber cloths, which leave very little lint.  Microfiber cloths are sold in the cleaning section of most large supermarkets. After they get dirty, these can be washed, although they should be washed separately to avoid picking up lint from other clothing.

      Now I might be overly protective, but I prefer not to use the denatured alcohol on corals, fossils, turquoise, and copper fire bricks. For these stones, I like to use a glass cleaner called Cinch. It seems to contain components that clean nicely and leave a shiny surface. I also use Cinch for cleaning my fused glass. After cleaning, I store the cabs in little plastic bags.

     One caveat of denatured alcohol--you don't want to use it anywhere near pearls. In fact, you don't want to use any strong cleaner near pearls. That would really damage them.

      Next, sonic cleaners....