How to clean stainless steel jewellery, step by step

Warm water, a drop of washing-up liquid, a soft toothbrush and a dry cloth. That is the whole kit for cleaning stainless steel jewellery, and it takes about five minutes. Steel does not tarnish, so cleaning it is about removing skin oil, sweat, soap and dust from between the links, not about restoring the metal.

Where people go wrong is escalating. A chain looks dull, soap does not seem to have done enough, and out come the toothpaste, the bleach or the scouring pad. None of those help and some of them do lasting damage, particularly to black and gold-tone finishes.

What you need

• A small bowl of warm water. Warm, not boiling. Hot water does not hurt steel but it is unkind to any stones and to your fingers.
• Mild dish soap. A few drops. Plain washing-up liquid is ideal; skip anything marketed as a heavy degreaser or with added bleach.
• A soft toothbrush. A child's toothbrush is better still, because the head fits inside a ring and between chunky links.
• A microfibre cloth, the kind that comes with glasses. Or any lint-free cotton cloth.
• Optional: a plain jewellery polishing cloth, for polished steel only. More on that below.

The routine

1. 1Take off everything and do one piece at a time. Chains tangle in a bowl faster than you would believe.
2. 2Soak the piece in warm soapy water for five to ten minutes. This loosens the grey paste of skin oil and soap that builds up in the gaps between links and inside ring bands.
3. 3Brush gently along the piece. On a chain, hold one end and brush towards the other so you are not bunching the links. On a ring, pay attention to the inside of the band, which is where most of the build-up lives.
4. 4Rinse under running water. Put the plug in the sink first, or hold the piece over a bowl. This is the step where rings go down drains.
5. 5Pat dry with the cloth, then lay the piece flat on a towel for fifteen minutes so water clears out of the links and the clasp.
6. 6If it is plain polished steel, finish with a few passes of a polishing cloth. Otherwise you are done.

Polished, brushed and PVD finishes are not cleaned the same way

PVD is a hard, thin ceramic-like layer bonded to the steel, and it is far tougher than ordinary electroplating. It is still a surface layer, though, and anything abrasive is working against it. Soap, water and a soft brush are all it ever needs. The difference is covered in more depth in the PVD coating explained guide.

What not to use on steel

• Bleach, toilet cleaners and anything chlorinated. Chlorides are the one thing that attacks even good steel, and they eat PVD edges.
• Toothpaste and baking soda paste. Both are abrasives. On polished steel they leave a fine haze of scratches; on brushed steel they leave shiny spots.
• Steel wool, scouring pads, the green side of a kitchen sponge. These leave iron particles behind that later show up as orange specks.
• Silver dips. They are acidic and designed for a different chemistry. They do nothing useful to steel and can mark PVD.
• Vinegar and lemon soaks. Not dramatic, but pointless, and prolonged acid contact is bad for coloured finishes.

If you are seeing small orange spots on a steel piece, that is usually surface contamination rather than rust, and soap and a cloth remove it. The longer explanation is in does stainless steel jewellery rust.

Can I use an ultrasonic cleaner?

On plain, solid steel with no stones, yes, and it is very good at clearing out dense chains like wheat or Franco links. On anything with glued stones, inlays or enamel, no. The vibration loosens adhesive and you will find a stone in the bottom of the tank. On PVD pieces, keep cycles short and the water mild, or simply stick to the brush.

How often

• Daily: a ten-second dry wipe before you take it off at night. This is the habit that keeps the full clean rare.
• Every two to four weeks: the soap-and-brush routine for anything you wear every day, especially through summer.
• After the sea, a pool, the gym or a long hot day outdoors: a rinse in plain water and a proper dry the same day.
• Before storing a piece for months: a full clean, dried for an hour, then into a pouch.

Men who wear a steel chain through wudu five times a day and a Lahore or Karachi summer will find it needs the full clean more often than the chart suggests, simply because more sweat and soap reach it. That is not the metal failing; it is just a busier chain. All of Zayr's men's pieces are 316L stainless steel, with gold and black tones done in PVD, so this routine is the only care they need.

If soap and water did not fix it, the answer is almost never something stronger. It is usually a second round of soap and water, and a softer brush.