Tarnished gold?

[MBOSCHERT]

A friend on mine was in a hot tub the other day, and her 14k stamped bracelet
and necklace tarnished. Any one know what did this? Is there a good way to
remove this without harming the pearl?

[guy...@hotmail.com]

It could be that the it isn't gold at all. Or it could be that the the
chain is gold, but the setting holding the pearl isn't. It might even be that
the ring isn't tarnished at all. As hard as it is to believem it cold have
picked up some kind of dross - basically dirt adhering to the surface of the
metal. Not knowing what is going on, I can't say how to clean it, but if gently
rubbing it with a soft cloth, or a cloth moistened with water or saliva doesn't
do the trick, I'd take it to a jewler - though probably not the one I bought it
from.

Found a web page that has a pretty good argument that
Clinton hit the nail on the head:
http://www.toad.new/~copple

[George Stuart]

Sounds like the chlorine in the water may have caused the gold to oxidize.
I have read that chlorine can disolve gold.

MBOSCHERT wrote in message <35eb404d...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>...

[Tony Lowe]

If the hot tub was overdosed with chlorine it may cause a slight
discolouration , but i sure would not want to be in the tub with
concentrations that high. But if the hot tub was a thermal water tub it
would possibly be hydrogen sulphide and this will sure do the trick.Both
ozone and elecro salt units should be OK but I have seen ozone
floatation tanks tarnish gold but this could be something to do with the
high concentration of epsom salts and electrical current over the
electrodes.The question as to cause would be subject to the type of
water treatment that was being used in the hot tub .
I clean up a lot of gold and silver that has been tarnished in natural
mineral water hot tubs , in fact in some areas in New Zealand you don't
even have to go in the pools to tarnishing the hydrogen sulphide is so
thick in the air it causes major problems with jewellery , great
business for the cleaner uppers though.
tonylowe

In article <35eb404d...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>, mbos...@aol.com
says...

[Marion Margoshes]

George Stuart wrote:

> Sounds like the chlorine in the water may have caused the gold to oxidize.
> I have read that chlorine can disolve gold.
>
> MBOSCHERT wrote in message <35eb404d...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>...

> >A friend on mine was in a hot tub the other day, and her 14k stamped
> bracelet
> >and necklace tarnished. Any one know what did this? Is there a good way to
> >remove this without harming the pearl?
> >
> >
> >

What do you think the concentration of chlorine in the pool was/// Oh my
skin!!!

[NE333RO]

>A friend on mine was in a hot tub the other day, and her 14k stamped bracelet
>and necklace tarnished. Any one know what did this? Is there a good way to
>remove this without harming the pearl?

It sounds like either the chlorine or some other chemical in the water did
it. ( I know they use other chemicals in the hot tubs to kill bacteria but I
dont know what they are). The heat also speeds this process up.
The best way to fix it is to take it to a professional for cleaning. The
pearl will probably have to be removed and the jewelry striped with cyanide (or
one of the other electrostripers) to get the discoloration out of the nicks and
crannies.