Caring for your Diamond

How to keep the sparkle in your Diamond

The best way to take care of your diamond is to avoid breaks and scratches and keep it clean. With good care, your diamond will have the same sparkle and beauty for a long, long time. Diamonds do not fade, tarnish or wear out like most materials so the true secret to keeping a diamond’s sparkle is keeping it clean.

Diamonds are one of the hardest natural material on this planet so it makes sense that diamond should be good at posing a scratch threat to another diamond. Use great caution when wearing multiple diamond rings on the same finger or hand. If the diamonds of one ring touch diamonds in another ring, both diamonds will likely end up scratched in a relatively short time. If you have a diamond wedding band next to your diamond engagement ring, be sure their design allows them to fit together so the diamonds don't touch.

The next most dangerous place for diamonds scratching each other is in the jewelry box so don't just throw your diamond rings, diamond earrings, and diamond bracelet together. Since diamonds will scratch diamonds, think of what they can do to other gemstones and precious metals. Keep your diamond jewelry in separate compartments or isolated by soft cloth to keep them from rubbing against each other.

While diamonds are very durable, they can break or chip. You would not let someone hit your diamond with a steel hammer but your diamond ring faces the same type of danger every day. File cabinets, metal seat belt buckles, and car doors are just a few of the metal surfaces that can hit a diamond in the course of a normal day. Avoid sharp impacts with hard surfaces and you will avoid chips and cracks in your diamond.

Diamonds are also good natural grease attractors. Some diamond mines separate diamonds from the broken rocks by running the material over a conveyor belt covered with a layer of grease. Diamonds stick to the grease and the rocks slide off. At the end of the shift, they remove the grease and melt it away, leaving the diamonds.

So be on the alert, when touching a diamond with your fingers, a diamond attracts grease. The oil from your fingertips will coat the diamond and reduce the sparkle. The same is true when your diamond ring touches the oil in your hair. Hand creams, lotions, hair spray, soap, and grease from food will create a film on your diamond that hides its true beauty. When you put your hands in dishwater, the dirt and grease in the water will adhere to the diamond. Dust and powders also cling to diamonds.

The good news is diamonds are easy to clean. Put your diamond jewelry in a warm solution of mild liquid detergent and water. You can also use the containers of “Jewelry Cleaner” available at jewelry and department stores. These typically have a small basket the ring can sit in and a small, soft brush to clean the hard to reach places around the diamond. Swish the ring around in the solution, rinse it with warm water, and dry the ring with a lint-free cloth. While chemicals will probably not hurt your diamond, harsh chemicals like chlorine or bleach can weaken and discolor the metal in the jewelry. Keep in mind that swimming pools and hot tubs are usually not good places for jewelry because of their high levels of chlorine.

There are many types of ultrasonic cleaners available to the public today. The piece of jewelry sits in a basket of water and detergent. The ultrasonic cleaner produces high-frequency turbulence that is an excellent way to clean the hard to get at part of jewelry. Not all gemstones are as durable as diamonds. Never put soft materials like emeralds opals and pearls in an ultrasonic cleaner.

With a little common sense and regular cleaning, your diamond will keep its sparkle and beauty for years.