What Chlorine Does to Gold

Chlorine can pit and weaken gold alloys. Why a swimming pool is more dangerous to a bracelet than daily wear, and the habit that prevents it.

We can usually tell. A bracelet comes in looking tired in a way that ordinary wear does not produce, the surface slightly rough, the clasp weak, tiny pits along the links.

The first question we ask is whether the owner swims.

What is happening

Gold jewellery is alloyed. Those other metals are what give a piece its strength, and they are also what chlorine attacks. Chlorine bleach can pit and damage gold alloys, and the damage is structural rather than cosmetic.

The gold itself is largely unbothered. The alloy around it is not, and the alloy is what holds the piece together.

Why it matters more on a bracelet

Damage concentrates where the metal is thinnest and where it flexes, link joints, clasp springs, the tiny rings on an extension chain. These are exactly the components that fail catastrophically rather than gradually.

A pitted link does not look dangerous. It simply gives way one day, usually while the owner is doing something entirely ordinary.

The instruction

Take it off before the pool. Before the hot tub. Before the sea.

Also before cleaning with bleach-based products, which is the exposure people never think of and which happens far more often than swimming.

If it has already happened

Bring it in. Pitting cannot be polished out in any meaningful sense, polishing removes metal, and the metal is already compromised, but a jeweller can assess whether the structure is sound and reinforce or replace the parts that are not.

The piece is usually saveable. It is much more saveable early.

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C'Garden is an independent bespoke jeweller in Kuala Lumpur. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by any organisation, laboratory or brand named in this article. Third-party names are used only to refer factually to those organisations and their published standards. All text and imagery in this article is original work created by C'Garden.

Reference

Jewelers of America. (n.d.). Gold jewelry guide. Jewelers of America. https://jewelers.org/education/jewelry-metals/gold-jewelry-guide/17-consumer/education-jewelry-care/jewelry-care