Gemstones and pickle solution

Hi all,

Hope everyone is having a good start to 2014.

Quick question. If I submerged a piece of silver with something like a ruby, diamond, sapphire set in it in pickling solution, would the acid effect the stone in any way?

I.e. is it safe to do this?

Cheers,

Nick

*Those* stones specifically should not be affected by pickle. However... If at all possible, don't heat them. I know it's perfectly doable to solder with stones set (just been doing it on a ring repair), but it isn't ideal.

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Originally Posted by Nick martin

If I submerged a piece of silver with something like a ruby, diamond, sapphire set in it in pickling solution, would the acid effect the stone in any way?

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Probably not, but why would you do that, Nick? Are they fired into clay?

Actually now I think of it, daft question. No offence to anyone, but I dislike the whole clay concept so no.

Guess that whatever design I do, I'd need to endure that all my soldering work was done prior to stone setting.

Nick

Yup Nick, stone setting should be one of the last stages, followed by a final polish.....you ideally wouldn't want to use heat, change shape, etc, following setting!!

Following on from my daft question, do you guys use anything specific to polish / shine gems with once they are set?

Nick

I was going to chime in with 'please don't pickle pearls' which sounds more like a tongue twister than advice but see you are abandoning the whole notion. I'll say please don't put pearls in any chemical (polish type dip) or stuff because they are porous.
If you have to polish around pearls just use one of those cloths and even then avoid the pearl if possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick martin

Following on from my daft question, do you guys use anything specific to polish / shine gems with once they are set?

Nick

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I'm not qualified by a long shot as I'm just self learning, but when I've made something with a stone set in (rub over setting, as I've not yet learnt how to do any other setting yet) I polish the whole item with my dremel avoiding the stone, then I use a normal silver polishing cloth (the anti-tarnish green ones) and rub over the stone and it's setting which brings them up to a really nice shine and hasn't done any harm to any of my stones.

Cheers Keia, that's useful stuff to me. Appreciated and I'll keep that a whirl.

Nick