Kaisilver, Custom Jewelry From Thailand
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It is sad that ultrasonic jewelry cleaners like the one shown above are being sold to casual gem and jewelry lovers. The device should ideally be handled by a jewelry professional who understands the ultrasonic cleaner and gemstones. While some types of gems will not be adversely affected when cleaned in ultrasonic cleaners, gems like emeralds can get ruined if exposed to the waves generated by the device. To understand why cleaning an emerald in an ultrasonic cleaner can ruin emeralds, we need to understand two very important facts related to emerald gem stones. These two factors dictate the way in which emeralds should be worn, cleaned or stored. Most jewelers do not care to educate gem buyers, this results in dozens of expensive emerald jewels being ruined each year. The damage caused to emeralds when put in an ultrasonic cleaner are permanent, it is therefore all the more necessary to stay informed. The first property of emeralds is that all emeralds have cracks or fissures in them. This is a natural occurence and will be true even of the most expensive emerald. While some buyers avoid emeralds due to their visible inclusions and fissures, other gem lovers adore them for the same reason. Many emerald lovers fondly refer to these inclusions and fissures as 'birthmarks' of the gemstone. These are formed over the millions of years that it takes for a natural emerald to be formed. Another factor that influences the right way to clean emeralds is the, oil treatment applied to emeralds. This is not a natural occurence, emeralds are not 'born' with any oil content in them. For centuries man has enhanced the beauty of emeralds by treating the stones with natural oils. This is an accepted form of treatment that is widely accepted even by the most seasoned gem expert. When you soak an emerald in natural oil, the oil seeps through the gemstone and fills the breaks and fissures in the gemstone. What this does is to make the cracks less visible, something that is often referred to as 'softening' the visibility of the fissures. When this happens, the emerald appears more transparent and gets an added lustre too. The important thing to know about oil treating emeralds is that, all emeralds are put through this process. Even priceless emerald gems and jewelry preserved in museums are occassionally re-soaked in oils to improve their appearance. What this means is that, the loss or damage of the natural oils in emerald gemstones, will negatively affect the beauty of the stone. Now let us see how the two factors of natural fissures and oil treatment makes some cleaning processes for emeralds dangerous. We are ofcourse concentrating on the use of ultrasonic jewelry cleaning devices to clean emeralds and gem stone jewelry with emerald stones. When you turn on an ultrasonic cleaner, the device generates high frequency ultrasonic waves. Jewelry or gems dropped into the ultrasonic cleaner could have dust or grime stuck to them. The ultrasonic waves loosen and shake off this dirt. This is how the gems and jewelry cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner become clean. Let us now how see how this process works when cleaning emerald gems in an ultrasonic cleaner. When you put an emerald gem stone or jewelry with emeralds in an ultrasonic cleaner (we suggest that you do not try this), the ultrasonic waves generated by the device enter the cracks and fissures that are naturally present in the gem. Remember that these would be normally filled with the natural oils that were used to treat the emerald. The oils get pushed out of the fissures and this will surely make your emerald appear drab and dull. In normal circumstances it does seem that, the emeralds could be re-oiled but there more problems ahead. The ultrasonic waves seep through the fissures and cause the cracks to widen. This is surely undesirable, and some of these cracks could be so near the surface of the emerald that they cause the gemstone to crack and break. This can ruin an expensive emerald gemstone, which in many cases could mean a price component that is more than the gold and diamond cost in the emerald jewel. This is why cleaning of emeralds should not be done in an ultrasonic cleaner. Your jeweler should be aware of this but, do not take things for granted. Discuss the issue with your jeweler before giving emerald stones or jewels for cleaning. Many jewelers do not know the basic properties of gems others, don't really care. Make sure that you work with a reputed jeweler who cares and is glad to share knowledge with you. Before we wind up this discussion on cleaning emeralds in ultrasonic cleaners, we would like to shed some light on a question that our support team is often called upon to answers. Without taking the names of any specific jeweler or any specific branded emerald treatment process, we will address this important issue. Many gem and jewelry lovers have visited various trade shows and have seen something interesting. Some emerald gem and jewelry sellers demonstrate an interesting 'feat'. They actually drop emeralds or jewelry with emeralds into an ultrasonic cleaner trying to prove that, the gems do not get negatively affected or damaged when cleaned in such devices. Since this is demonstrated in reputed gem and jewelry shows across the world, the casual buyer is bound to be impressed and believes the gimmick. So what exactly is the story behind this stunt, Kaisilver reveals the truth. Treating emeralds with natural oils is an ancient practice and is accepted by all gemological experts. However when a treatment other than the natural oil process is used to treat an emerald, the seller is expected to specifically inform the buyer about this 'different' process. New methods to treat gems including emeralds, are regularly developed and here is something related to emeralds. Thick resins which also act like hardners are sometimes used to treat emeralds. This material seals off the cracks and fissures in the gem and is unaffected by the ultrasonic waves generated in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaning device. In simple non-technical terms you could say that this treatment 'cements' the gemstone together. This obviously makes the emerald more compact and resilient to water and some jewelry cleaning methods. With the above emerald treatment, the ultrasonic waves do not enter the cracks and there is no question of the natural oils being pushed out - simply because there are no natural oils. So this is not the emerald that you and I are aware of, it is a major modification to the structure and formation of the emerald. Serious gem and jewelry experts do not consider this to be an acceptable gemstone treatment. While we have not conducted any experiment on such tricky emeralds, we have come across cases where emeralds treated with resins and hardners could not be easily repolished when the need arose for a repolish. We would therefore strongly suggest that you stay with the conventional natural oil treatment for your emerald gems and jewelry. Kaisilver can provide you with custom jewelry in gold or sterling silver with gems of your choice. The designs for your custom jewelry can be yours or ours. All gems including emeralds are procured directly from the mines and custom cut by our expert cutters. This eliminates multiple middlemen commissions and also, takes off any possibility of unacceptable treatments being applied to the gems. We are the only highend online custom made jewelry provider to offer the same quality of design, gems and craftsmanship for gold or 925 sterling silver jewelry. Our support team can be contacted at sales@kaisilver.com with any questions or requirements that you might have.
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