FAQ

This is where you can come to get your most commonly asked jewelry questions answered.

--Gold Jewelry--
Use a soft cloth to keep all qualities of gold polished and fingerprint-free. High-karat (18K and 24K) gold jewelry has little alloy to make the material hard. Soft precious metals should be cleaned with care to help the piece retain its shape and integrity. Use a soft treated cloth (such as Heirloom Polishing Cloth with fine microabrasives) to clean high-karat gold and keep it polished. You can also clean high-karat gold in a warm water/gentle detergent or cleaning solution.

--Gold-Filled Jewelry--
The term "gold-filled" is a bit of a misnomer. Gold-filled does not have gold in the middle, nor is it a mixture of gold and base metals. Actually, gold-filled is a brass sheet or brass core with a pressure-bonded outside layer of gold to produce the look of gold at a more reasonable price. Sometimes both the top and bottom of a sheet are layered with gold; this is called double-clad gold-filled.
The term 14/20 gold-filled means the piece is 1/20th (or 5%) 14K gold; 12/20 gold-filled means the piece is 1/20th (or 5%) 12K gold. There are federal standards for quality and content in gold-filled material. Gold-filled is more valuable than gold-plated, which has just a microscopic layer of gold on the surface which can wear away quickly.Care should be taken when cleaning gold-filled jewelry to protect the thin layer of gold from being worn away or nicked. Do not use abrasive compounds to clean gold-filled jewelry.