Your tips are very suitable. I clean copper and brass performed with just the lemon juice. Squeeze an adequate amount of lemon juice in a ceramic bowl (do not use metal bowls) and then immerse the jewelry copper or brass for 15 minutes or half an hour or more depending on the oxide having and finally washed with water and a little dishwashing gel and now. Citric acid attacks fine copper oxide. The garments can be submerged with stones or other objects. Experiment and see the results.

(Original comment in Spanish):

Tus consejos están muy adecuados. Yo la limpieza del cobre y el latón la realizo con simple jugo de limón. Exprimo una cantidad adecuada de jugo de limón en un cuenco de cerámica (no usar cuencos metálicos) y luego sumerjo las joyas de cobre o latón por 15 minutos, o media hora o más dependiendo del oxido que tengan y al final lavo con agua y un poquito de gel de lavaplatos y ya. El ácido cítrico ataca muy bien el óxido de cobre. Las prendas pueden ser sumergidas con piedras u otros objetos. Experimenta y verás los resultados.

Thanks, Monica! 🙂

Kathi, great jewelry minds think alike! 🙂 I like your less messy method – thanks for sharing that tip.

Hi Julia! I haven’t experimented much with vinegar & salt on stones. To find out how a procedure might affect jewelry components, I always recommend testing on a scrap or specimen that you wouldn’t mind messing up. And remember that different stones may have different results due to porosity and other factors. 🙂

As a former lapidary, common stones that should never be cleaned with household agents or commercial cleaning solutions, because they are porous and their oxide finish will be stripped: lapis lazuli, malachite, chrysocolla, azurite, opal, are a few. Natural ‘stones:’ pearls and oral.

Nelson Gemstones, I haven’t experimented with dipping stones in ketchup. But I always recommend caution when doing any sort of cleaning or treatment on jewelry that has stones, since porous or fragile gems often can’t take treatments that work on metal. I would test it first on a stone you wouldn’t mind ruining just in case it doesn’t weather the treatment well! 🙂

Ann, thank you! 🙂 And great tip about keeping a close eye on copper while it’s in vinegar and salt. I knew it worked faster than ketchup, but I didn’t realize it could be that fast.

Thanks for this demo. Being a “mad scientist” type myself, I already knew about salt and vinegar to clean copper. I hand paint coins, and have used this to clean copper pennies and foreign coins made of copper. I especially liked using it for the amazing coins from Australia with a kangaroo on them. Makes them look brand new!

Like you, I hate the smell of vinegar, so using ketchup sounds really appealing. Never thought to do that. Also, the vinegar and salt version is very fast and you can easily overdo it and ruin the coin (which I have obviously done).

So, once again thanks for sharing what you know. I have already learned so much from you, and appreciate having you and your website as a great resource.

Ann

I do repair of jewelry and have a friend who has an antique shop. She is often asking me to do some repair. I recently did a replacement of rhine stones in a beautiful cuff of round and baguette stones. The stone repair worked well but the bracelet was very dull looking and not exciting. How to fix this?

I took a small jewelry cleaning cloth and just buffed the whole bracelet. Not only did the metal com alive but the rhinestones were absolutely stunning in their sparkle. I had no idea that this small tip would work so well!