How to clean smoke damaged turquoise

A friend just called me to say her daughter’s house burned down,
next door to her. She wanted to know how to clean turquoise, that’s
drilled and strung. I haven’t seen it yet. The first thing I thought
of was a soft toothbrush, mild liquid dish soap, like Dove or Ivory,
warm water, then rinse & dry afterward.

Any other suggestions?
Sharon Perdasofpy

Believe it or not, Listerene will take the smell out.

Lisa (recovering from eye surgery. Hopefully successful!) Topanga, CA USA

I work with turquoise all the time and have cleaned it in several
different ways. My family used to use exclusively sudsy ammonia,
available at any grocery store, which is still a really good way to
clean turquoise to get tripoli and rouge off of it. I often use my
sonic cleaner which will make many cringe when they read that but
that’s what I do.

Turquoise is heat sensitive though and if it got hot enough it will
turn a sickly green and no amount of cleaning or polishing will
revive it.

Sam Patania

Hi Sharon

I have cleaned up damaged malachite with a liquid brass polish
(Brasso) followed by a liquid silver polish (Silvo) washed after each
cleaning.

Richard

Thanks very much for the info Sam. The friend is a retired law
enforcement officer. If she needs help cleaning any of this, I plan
to do it for free, of course. God bless, Sharon Perdasofpy