About luster treatment

[GemGeek]

Do you really mean steam, or do you mean "soak"?

 

[Valeria101]

Perhaps there is no straightforward reason for anyone to want to recognize whether some pearls have been treated like you say or not. Still, is this possible?

Lets take one extreme case: could you tell a treated pearls from untreated, given two pearls of the same color, shape and size? Would any instrument (say, a jeweler's loupe) help?

 

[Yikai]

heh,heh, heh!

I was not imagining corn cobs, but it is a great idea.

The wax in there is a polishing agent. It is like polishing shoes. It adds another element to luster - just plain shininess -which is not the same as mirror or orient.

I think the wax must provide a modicum of protection for the pearls until it wears off. At what temperature does the wax melt?

What I meant by steaming them at home was just contact with steamy water vapors. Or putting them in hot water--

About a year ago, I put on a cultured freshwater bracelet (10mm pink/lavender pearls with a lot of orient, and even metallic luster) and wore it for a year as a test of the thread being used to make it. Anyway I wore it 24/7, in the shower and while washing dishes. If anything, it seems even more shiny than when I started
wearing it. Those pearls are fairly round but baroquey, not eggy. The skin has some wrinkles that add to the orient. Did it get wrinkly from the treatments before it got sold?

BTW
The string (power pro) passed with flying colors- no stretching even though it got wet everyday. It shed water quickly and was dry in minutes. If I yanked it on something, the strength of the string is such that the clasp would break first. I never yanked it that hard by accident, so I think it is a very wearable, secure string for big pearls and bracelets.

The wax provides not just a modicum of protection for the pearls. I helps hold luster much longer. Actually, the wax can't change the luster of the pearls much. Pearls with bad luster still don't get a shiny look when wearing on wax. We bought the wax in liquid. People who sold it to us must have put water into it, I think.

when I am saying "steaming them", I mean "putting them in hot water".

It also happens here that wrinkles sometimes appear after treatments, but it doesn't happen a lot. Pearls are born with wrinkles, and the wrinkles will be clear after the treatments. When you were in shower or washing dishes, I think you were polishing the pearls in another way.

 

[Yikai]

Do you really mean steam, or do you mean "soak"?

Sorry, I mean putting them in hot water.

 

[Yikai]

Perhaps there is no straightforward reason for anyone to want to recognize whether some pearls have been treated like you say or not. Still, is this possible?

Lets take one extreme case: could you tell a treated pearls from untreated, given two pearls of the same color, shape and size? Would any instrument (say, a jeweler's loupe) help?

It is true, Valeria. Unless every company agrees not to do the treatments, companies would keep treating pearls like that, or companies who don't do that will fall behind. I personally don't think it is very bad, bacause it helps hold the luster longer, make pearls lubricous and bring no side effects. We can't change a pearl's color, shape or size by doing the treatments, I think you misunderstood a little bit, Valeria. Of couse, You can tell if they are treated by comparing the smoothness of a pearl and the level of luster it has. The treated pearls usually are more lubricous and shiny. Thank you, Valeria.

 

[GemGeek]

Thanks Yikai.

 

[Valeria101]

I personally don't think it is very bad, because it helps hold the luster longer, make pearls lubricious and bring no side effects.

[...]

Of course, You can tell if they are treated by comparing the smoothness of a pearl and the level of luster it has.

Thanks!

Agreed that processing pearls is necessary - no misunderstanding there.

It is nice to have the choice to get untreated ones though - could be that I am the only one to think so (although you said you had clients asking for untreated pearls, as well). I cannot say that I can even tell which pearls have been processed and which not every time; looks is not everything even if the pearls are not terribly expensive.