Almost threw out this silver ring, but you will understand why when you see the pics

[lorraine]

HI

Out again at low tide for 2 hrs. hunt.

Not much takings today, but on my final "stroll" towards the shoreline heading for home, I hit a nice mid-high tone target; what I dug up was a ring.... hideous on first sight...looked like corroded copper or rusted "something", and was about to put it in the trash....but then I noticed a pretty stone ( ? green turquoise) in the center , and some decorative styling on the sides, so I brought it home.

Decided to electrolyze it , expecting nothing to come of it, but curious just the same.

Nothing came of the electrolyzing , but undaunted, I decided to try some baking soda and ammonia soak on it....there was just "something " about this ring that wasn't "ringing true"

Wow! Was I surprised to see the finished product after some soaking and scrubbing.

Here's some pics

Thanks for looking at my finds

Lorraine






This ring must have been in that ocean mud for a verrrrrrrrrry long time.



looks maybe "custom -made" ?












green turquoise stone

 

[okerraine]

Congratulations on that greatrecovery. It looks to be a Native American or Navajo ring. A lot of times on the earlier made once they did not stamp them. I found a belt buckle once that was sterling silver I thought was zinc until I have cleaned it up I had left it in a box because it had so much rust and tarnish on

 

[lorraine]

"It looks to be a Native American or Navajo ring. "

I was thinking the same thing, okerraine; would like to know what the stone is....maybe jade or green turquoise?

Here's a link to a similarly made Navajo ring:

http://stores.fourcornersusaonline....uoise-Native-American/Detail.bok#.UcRGOqHD-1s
Lorraine


here's a pic of a green turquoise stone:

 

[Potts]

Lorraine... you did an excellent job in bringing that ugly ring back to life..it's so beautiful...

 

[Les West Central Fl]

What a job on cleanup!!! Nice find ,good thing you double checked it.

 

[fredinbelize]

It cleaned up really well. Did I ever thank you for your tips on cleaning? They have really helped me a lot.
Before
After

 

[fongu]

Great job on the ring, lorraine. I don't have a set up for electrolysis, but would like to know how much ammonia and baking soda to use and how long to soak. I found 3 rings today and one of them is in pretty bad shape. I will try and post them tomorrow, but I would like to clean them up. Can you use this soak on gold rings, also? WTG & HH.

 

[lorraine]

I depends on how badly tarnished the item is.

I dilute the ammonia 2/3 ammonia to 1/3 water; after soaking for about 20 minutes, I rinse the item off and scrub it with baking soda mixed with water enough to make a paste. Repeat the process as often as needed.

Having stated the above, I will say that I rarely use the ammonia method, choosing instead to use a soak in Tarn-X and then follow with the baking soda scrubbing for lightly tarnished items; and electrolysis /Tarn-X /baking soda for heavily tarnished items.

The only reason that I used the ammonia method was because electrolysis did nothing for it...nor did Tarn -X

In my experience,electrolysis followed by Tarn-X followed by baking soda works best on that heavy gray/black gravel -like coating on items recovered from salty conditions.


Gold rings usually don't need any kind of cleansing unless in the case of an older 10 K that has accumulated a green coating/crusting due to the copper content reacting with the salt. In cases like this, I will electrolyze the ring to remove the crusting and then rub the ring gently with the baking soda paste mixture.

Other members on the forum may have some alternate methods...perhaps better than my methods. If so, I invite them to share their methods so we can learn more.


Lorraine

 

[LostinBolton]

Great save and cleaning. Thank for the cleaning tips also.... Keep up the great work and post... Thanks.