Antique cut steel Jewellery

Today’s blog is prompted by a question from one of my readers: 

Hi there, Can you advise me on how to clean up an antique cut steel key belt?

 Have you seen cut steel Jewellery. Its not made now but was very popular in Georgian times and  Victorian times as it sparkles like diamonds in candle light.  Today you might think that cut steel was a cheap for of costume jewellery but it was so highly thought of that Napoleon gave Marie Louise a cut steel parure and is one form of antique jewellery which is most collectable today.  The cut steel jewellery was made by faceting tiny pieces of steel just like gemstones and then attaching the pieces to a back plate. Take a look at these two pictures. In the first you can see the front of the cut steel buckle where is is a grey silver colour. In the second picture you can see how all the pieces of cut steel have been joined individually to the backing plate.

reverse of cut steel buckle

Later pieces were not made from individually cut rivets but rather stamped from a sheet , when you see pieces which are stamped out you can assume a mid to later Victorian age rather than Georgian.

So back to the question of cleaning Cut Steel Jewellery, an interesting one. Clearly we need to avoid getting cut steel wet as it will rust with the slightest drop of moisture.  I think two different approaches are necessary depending upon the condition of the item with or without rust.

To clean cut steel jewellery in good condition I would use a dry brush such as a tooth brush. You should be able to get old dust and grime out with a little gentle rubbing.  If the cut steel is already rusty we are looking more at restoration than simple cleaning, you are unlikely to ever get the piece back to bright and shiny but I think a little light clean with dry 00 grade steel wool should help. 00 grade steel wool is very fine and is sold for furniture restoration purposes. This is not household steel wool which I would definitely not advise.

Cut Steel Brooch