This is from someone who doesn't really wear her stuff, in part because she has been burned by poor workmanship: IT IS SAD. I have been making a very concerted effort not to loupe it as often and so far so good, then again, I havent been wearing them much either. In part due to the fact that it's friggin cold out and I don't do rings with gloves. Scratches in the metal like you're talking about are gonna be there even when you haven't worn it because there's simply no such thing as pure smooth "unscratched" metal, really. The metal is polished with fine grit and rouge and a chamois. That is gonna leave, what looks to you under a loupe, like little teeny tiny scratches. Im not sure if this will help but look at those little scratches as love. You love the ring and you're wearing it. Its a hell of a lot cheaper to get a setting replated, repolished and remade if need be, than it is to replace a diamond.
Tips or suggestions for cleaning diamonds
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Thank you! I used to have 14K gold rings and DH upgraded them as a surprise to white gold/rhodium plated with a platinum backing. I guess it just bothers me because they are so "new"......I like keeping things "new" and I know as I wear them they are no longer "new", but it bothers me that I caused scratches. I know it's crazy......this happens mostly after I clean them.....and they are so shiny and new looking and then I loupe them and see these tiny scratches!
ame you are THE BEST! I am printing this out and every time my heart sinks when I see a tiny scratch I am going to read this! I have been wearing gloves with my rings, too, and then little hairs get stuck on them and I am found pulling out the hairs as I loupe them!!!! It's an illness.....I need to look at any scratches as love, like you said. I did not loupe yesterday.....at all!!!! I did pull hairs out though under a lamp!!!!! That makes them more visible for me to pull out!!!!! I am planning on getting my rings re-rhodiumed and polished every 6 months to a year, and I keep trying to tell myself when this gets done I will no longer see those scratches but I will see new ones! Then I loupe the diamonds and remind myself they are sooooo beautiful and perfect and the metal can always be fixed! Thank you! I needed this!!!!
This is probably different for me because I wear YG rings, but the scratching and patina my rings develop make them all the more beautiful to me. They are lived in - not damaged, but well-loved. The reality is that I cannot wear 18K YG without at least the hand side of the band showing some scratching; it will happen no matter how careful I am. And for me personally, I would rather have something that I adore and whose slight imperfections tell the tale of a wearer who loved the ring than a something perfect that must be treated like a museum piece and rarely worn.
But believe me, I understand OCD. I don't have a solution for it; jewelry just isn't an OCD issue for me.
But believe me, I understand OCD. I don't have a solution for it; jewelry just isn't an OCD issue for me.
I wore yellow gold rings for 18 years and I was this way, too. Until a jeweler told me that by polishing my rings so much I am losing gold and eventually it will wear away and I will need to replace the setting. That scared me. But I did still loupe them daily for a while. The back of the rings dont bother me as much as the front because I know the backs will get scratched from using my hands.....it's the front where the design of the channel setting is that makes me crazy when I see a tiny scratch!
Since ame wrote yesterday about looking at the scratches as "love", I have to admit I have been MUCH better and relaxing a bit....thanks, ame!!!!
Every six months to a year is what the jeweler is getting at and what I mean. When you polish gold you're shaving off a layer and thinning out the setting and it will weaken over time and require replacement.
While I realize that rings do lose gold through wear alone, and can even wear thin through many years of use, I wore my previous YG wedding set for 15+ years without ever having it polished. That was really my point about YG, is that in my eyes it doesn't need polishing at all.
White gold, from my understanding, can be different depending on the alloy used, and when rhodium plating wears away the colour can change slightly. Some alloys are much better than others and there are even some that don't get warmer as the plating wears away or that aren't plated in the first place. But I know a lot of people who have their rings polished and replated periodically, which was something I never wanted to have to do with my rings.
Clearly, everyone is different about what bothers them, but my point about the YG was that in my eyes it doesn't need polishing. So unless there is gross damage, in which case the setting would need repair or replacement, louping it was beside the point for me. The tiny scratches - front or back - were part of the package and didn't need examining or polishing out.
NO. Polishing at a jeweler's is quite different. Cleaning in a solution at home is quite different and is usually safe to do weekly or even daily if you feel like it.
Nope not at all the same thing. A true polishing involves grit and rouge and chamois on a wheel by a professional, and specific to gold, metal is being shaved off the surface to reveal a new smoother surface.
Platinum doesn't lose metal, as MOST "scratches" in platinum are simply dents and a polish simply moves the metal back into the displacement to smooth it back out. Severe scratches in platinum can remove metal.