Having received a lovely diamond half eternity ring from my husband
for Christmas, I decided to put my engagement ring through my
ultrasonic to give it a good clean. I noticed later in the day that
the yellow gold shank of my engagement ring was much paler than it
should be - almost having the colour of unplated white gold. The ring
is yellow gold with a platinum head. I use ammonia in my ultrasonic.
I’ve searched the archives and found a couple of replies to the same
problem but they didn’t really answer the question definitively. One
suggestion was that it was plated with silver and that there was
some galvanic effect going on. The silver makes sense as I am only
making sterling jewellery at the moment so that is what goes in the
tank on a day to day basis, with the occasional piece of gold being
cleaned. If it is being plated with silver particles, will a quick
polish and then ultrasonic cleaning in fresh solution restore the
yellow gold colour?
Thanks in advance.
Helen Hill