Comments:
Probably a long shot, but does anyone know how to quickly tarnish 10k gold? (Quickly can months, just not years)
I’ve had my father’s ring for 22 years, without a stone. In fact I remember this ring from the mid ‘70 and the stone was missing even back then.
I recently had a small, pale blue-gray star sapphire that I’ve had for years (I’ve collected cut gemstones for decades) mounted by my jeweler and he did a great job. But because he needed to alter the prongs to accommodate a cabochon stone, the ring is polished and very shiny. It had a very rich patina from decades of use and storage, which I’d like to at least replicate just a little.
Sapphire is technically corundum which, according to the University of Waterloo’s Earth Sciences Museum website, is “unaffected by acids and most environments” so I don’t believe any chemicals that might work would harm the stone. But I do have a couple extra small sapphires that aren’t gem quality I could test first.
I’ve tried google searches but can only find how to remove tarnish, not replace it.
I don’t want to ask my jeweler because I don’t want him to feel bad for polishing it, but as a last resort I can ask.
Thanks! After your suggestion I found a video of someone using chlorine on a 10k chain and it looks like this is exactly what I was looking for. Will give it a try when I have the chance.
Thanks! Googled using iodine after your suggestion and found a few descriptions of how it works. Seems it’s used mostly for give gold an antique look, which may be more extreme than I need.
I’m going to try chlorine first and if I’m not happy with that, I’ll give iodine a try.
I don’t know why chlorine or iodine didn’t show up in my initial google searches but when specifically searching for them there’s lots of hits.
I don’t know why chlorine or iodine didn’t show up in my initial google searches but when specifically searching for them there’s lots of hits.
Hard boiled eggs…
Crumble them into pieces and put in a ziplock bag with the thing you want to tarnish
Thanks, I’ve seen others use hard boiled eggs for tarnishing silver but not for gold…maybe.
Well it is not the gold which tarnishes
Gold (Au) is essentially inert. It is the other components of the 10k alloy which would tarnish. These are normally silver and copper.
Agreed, which is why you’d expect 10k to tarnish easier than 14, 18, etc. But from what I can find, this method would take some time with even 9 or 10k.
So, this is the ring after a few minutes in a bleach and water mix. It’s almost the same color as it was before being polished.
I should have taken a before photo but didn’t think of it — it was so shiny it looked like a fake from a gum ball machine.
Thanks for the help, everyone!
Photo on my daughter’s hand.