Questionaire 6

Many commercial jewelry cleaning products contain

Ammonia- Should never be used on soft gemstones.

Which machine cleans jewelry with high-frequency sound waves in a liquid solution?

An Ultrasonic cleaner- removes dirt, but it can also shake stones loose from their mountings and damage porous stones and stones with low toughness. Fracture filled or oil impregnated stones should never be place in an ultrasonic cleaner.

Which type of jewelry is most vulnerable to everyday abuse?

Bracelets - the position of a bracelet on a customers arm makes it very vulnerable to damage from everyday wear.

The initial step in take-ins is usually

inspecting the piece - takeins is an industry term for inspecting an item and recording information about it.

Any acid, even diluted. will damage

Pearls- non-organic stones resist chemicals better, but it'sbest to be careful with them as well.

A network of tiny cracks in an opal caused by moisture loss or thermal shock is known as

Crazing - opal needs a certain amount of moisture to retain their beauty. Excess heat can cause them to craze and possibly lose their play-of-color.

part of every sales presentation should include disclosure of any treatments and information regarding

care - your customers depend on you for care and cleaning information. undisclosed treatments and care concerns can cause serious problems later on.

Sometimes stones like jade and lapis lazuli can fade because they are

dyed.

Stability is the gernal term for a gemstone's resistance to heat, chemicals, and

fading- some gems that are not very stable will fade noticeably if they're exposed to light for extended periods.

Ultrasonic cleaners can cause problems if a stone is porous, has low toughness, or is

fracture filled- other problems can arise from the cleaning solution tht's used in the ultrasonic process. It can remove the dye from some stones or etch porous and organic colored stones.

The mohs scale rates a gemstone's relative

hardness - the numbers don't indicate actual hardness, but only hardness relative to other minerals. Diamonds is the hardest gem, and rates a 10 on the Moh's scale. Corrundum, at 9 on the Moh's scale, is acutally a lot more easily scratched than diamond.

Hardness is a gemstone's resistance to

scratching - Diamond is the hardest gemstone and it can scratch any other natural mineral on earth.

The three components that make up a gemstone's durability are hardness, toughness, and

stability. - different colored stones have different degrees of hardness, toughness, and stability, so they're vulnerable to different environmental influences.

A gemstone's resistance to breaking and chipping is known as

toughness - not the same as hardness. jadeite isn't very hard, or it scratches easily, but it is very tough, so it's difficult to break

One of the safest methods for cleaning colored stones is

warm water and soap - mild soap with no detergents is the safest thing to use for cleaning most colored stones.