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How to Care for Your Engagement Ring

How Durable is an Engagement Ring?

As most engagement rings are made from a precious metal, such as gold or platinum they will scratch easy over time. Even if you are very careful they will still scratch, but of course the more gentle and careful you are and the milder the scratches will be. This is because precious metals used in jewellery are soft metals. Many household and work items are made from steel or other hard metals and as your engagement ring makes contact with them it will scratch. Most are considered micro-scratches and don’t get noticed straight away but over time they build up and create a dull effect on the gold or platinum surface.

The bottom of the ring is always the most prone to scratches and damage as it’s on the inside of the hand so it’s always making the most contact with other items from normal day to day use, such as desks and door knobs for example.

The only way to avoid micro scratches on your engagement ring is to not wear it (which is of course out of the question), however the good news is that these very light scratches are considered the least to worry about as they will easily come off in a light polish by your jeweller. As a matter of fact nearly all marks caused to the gold or platinum (even heavy ones) can be removed by a good jeweller.

Diamonds are very durable and don’t scratch from normal wear and tear but they can still get damaged. A knock on a hard surface can sometimes cause the diamond to chip or even break. Apart from losing the diamond this is the worst scenario and if you were unlucky enough then we may be able to help you if you contact us. We are agents for a diamond cutter in Australia and other cutters overseas. Most damage caused to diamonds can be fixed by re-polishing but there usually is some weight reduction of the stone. One example I dealt with several years back - where a lady that worked in a bank hit her diamond accidentally against a hard metal desk and it caused a big chip that took part of the diamond’s table off and went deep into it’s crown.

The diamond weighed 0.60ct at the time. It was removed from the bezel and was re-polished for her, and it came back as brand new but the chip was so big that the stone ended up weighing 0.49ct. So 0.11ct was lost from the re-polishing process. Not much was lost from the diameter. The diamond reduced in value being 11 points less, but it was better than losing the whole stone and it ended up looking as good as it originally did.

Jewellery Care and Safety Tips

1: Never wear your engagement ring doing the gardening. The soil and sand scratches the gold. Also rings can easily get accidentally buried and lost that way. Always find a safe place in your home to put your jewellery there until you are finished working in the garden.

2: Never wear your rings or any jewellery when using tools and especially power-tools. This is more for your own safety. Hand tools can cause scratches on the ring without you noticing.

An extreme case of accidental jewellery abuse

Once upon a time one of my customers complained that he only had his wedding ring (mans ring made from 18 karat white gold) for 2 weeks and it became heavily scratched. I seen it and it looked terrible. Some rings that are 100 years old didn’t look that bad. I asked him: “what kind of work do you do” and he said: “Bricklayer”, I then asked him “Did you wear the ring while bricklaying” and he said: “yes”. That explains it!

It’s like owning a 4WD vehicle. You look after it and keep it away from sharp tree branches and it doesn’t scratch much over many years, but as soon as you drive into sharp branches then expect heaps of scratches immediately.

3: Never wear your rings while swimming at the beach or in public pools, as they can easily slip off your finger without you even knowing. This is because cold water shrinks your fingers and makes them more slippery. Statistically - most rings that get lost are through swimming and water sports.

4: Don’t wear your engagement ring in the shower as it can drop and get damaged, or even worse fall down the drain. Even if the ring is too large to fall down the drain then imagine it fell hard, the diamond dropped out from the impact (which is rare but can happen) and the diamond got washed down the drain instead.

Soap and water does wonders for removing rings from fingers unexpectedly. Be careful !

Jewellery Cleaning Methods

A good household jewellery cleaner can be made by using a small plastic container as a bath and adding 1 part of cloudy ammonia with 10 parts of hot (not boiling) water. Leave your jewellery soaked in the bath for about 5 – 10 minutes, then remove and rinse. Some say to also use a toothbrush to help remove any stubborn build up of dirt but we don’t recommend the toothbrush as it can scratch the surface of precious metals. Use a soft artists paintbrush instead. For best results at home use a proper jewellery cleaner, which you can buy from some jewellery stores or over the internet. Search with keyword: “Jewellery Cleaners” or “Jewellery Cleaning Kit”.

Jewellery cleaners are safe to use on most types of jewellery. They are ideal for diamond engagement rings and most types of fine jewellery. Just be cautious about cleaning costume jewellery. The rule is that if you are not supposed to wash it with water then don’t clean it with a jewellery cleaner. Delicate porous stones like lapis lazuli, turquoise and pearls for example are not suitable to be cleaned with most jewellery cleaners. There are special kinds of cleaners out there for delicate stones or simply ask where you bought the item for cleaning advice.

Gems like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, aquamarines and all other non-porous stones can be cleaned anytime using the water and ammonia method or using a proper jewellery cleaner.

How often shall I clean my Engagement Ring?

You can do it everyday if you like, it won’t hurt it. But for the cost and convenience you shouldn’t clean it more than once a week. We also recommend that every six months you take your engagement ring to your jeweller for a check-up. If the diamond has loosened (which can sometimes happen from wear and tear) then the jeweller should be able to have it tightened.