My daughter’s house burned down in the Eaton fire in January. She was able to retrieve some of her jewelry from the ruins, even though the house was leveled.
I am trying to clean some of her jewelry - what survived was platinum - but I can’t seem to get behind stones and into little areas. The soot only comes off with a soft abrasive wheel on my flex shaft so far. Any suggestions would be helpful!
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What a terrible story. I hope all of her family is well and the loss of the house is the only loss.
Can you work a string behind? I load up a string with polish and work it back and forth. A non abrasive pipe cleaner might do the same for you.
Send yes pictures of the project. That might produce some better ideas.
Don
Hey!
My parents lost their home in the same fire. Grew up in Altadena so it hit home, literally. Mainly replying to connect and say I’m going through some of the same things.
What have you tried so far? I’ve found that 2mm abrasive pins are great for getting into tight spaces if you don’t mind them occasionally breaking. How tight is the space? You might also consider removing the stones depending on the setting. Depends on your level of comfort.
Depending on what the staining is, you might also have some success with the same chemistry we use after heat work, like pickle. Admittedly I don’t have platinum experience so I’m hesitant to suggest it, but if it was me, a light surface etch with a platinum/gold aqua regia test solution might be worth trying? Maybe start in a safe space you can polish if you don’t like the results…
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Sorry about your loss. Lots of other good ideas already. Add an ultrasonic bath, Mitchells sell abrasive cord and tape, you can buy pneumatic media blasters that can get into small places and lots of different chemical solutions. You might check with an art conservator or even an insurance adjuster to see if they have any ideas about general fire damage remediation that would apply. Good luck…Rob
Unfortunately, I’ve had to clean fire damage more than once.
This is what worked for me - I used a very heavy duty degreaser - some purple stuff that I got at Sams Club. I first washed the jewelry in soap and warm water, scrubbing with a soft toothbrush. If that’s close, stop there. Next put the jewelry in the heavy duty purple stuff and let it soak over night. Then, put on heavy duty nitrile gloves and rinse the jewelry in very warm water. Use a childs tooth brush to scrub, and examine the pieces. It it still isn’t clean, put it in your ultrasonic. I typically use the diluted purple stuff to boost the action of the sonic. It needs to hang on a wire rack. The grease or what looks like grease is the black sticky slimy stuff. Usually, the purple stuff gets it. If you have gold and diamonds, you can go to the lye bath. All of this presumes that the stones and metal will withstand such tough treatment. If all that survives is the metal, set new stones -or if nothing works, take it to a refiner that can attempt to save the stones. Proforce is the name I remember of the purple stuff. Find it in janitorial supplies.
Judy Hoch
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A steamer might also help once the degreaser does its thing. If you don’t have a steamer but do have an espresso machine that has a steam wand for frothing milk, that may work too.
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