By Trey Thomas
High quality gemstone
globes don’t come cheap, and if you want to get your money’s worth and make
your investment last, you’ve got to know how to take care of your world globe. To
keep your gemstone globe looking beautiful, you’ll have to make sure that you
some periodic maintenance on the orb.
Fortunately, such a task isn’t as hard as
it sounds. Yes, gemstone globes are delicate works of art that require careful
cleaning—doing otherwise could very well damage your gemstone globe’s finish. But
you can avoid that if you know what to use to when cleaning the globe, as well
as the right method in cleaning it.
What You Will Need for the Job:
- Clean dust cloths (preferably cotton)
- Q-tips
- Water
- Few drops of mild dish soap
Step 1
Start with your clean dust cloth. If your
gemstone globe only has a thin layer of dirt covering its surface, simply dust
it with the soft cloth. You don’t need to have a fancy microfiber cloth or
anything—a simple cloth diaper works just fine. Gently wipe the entire surface
of the gemstone globe until its shine returns.
Step 2
Get your Q-tips and use them to clean the
gemstone globe’s seems. Use the buds to clean the latitude and longitude lines,
as well as the boundaries between countries and states. Despite how tight these
seams are, dust can still penetrate the tiny gaps between the gems where
regular cloth can’t reach into.
Step 3
If after all that, your gemstone globe
still looks dull, proceed to take another clean cotton cloth and dampen with a
little water, using it to wipe the globe once more. Whatever you do, don’t
using anything abrasive, like rubbing alcohol. Water will do just fine, and anything
stronger can potentially damage the your gemstone globe’s finish.
After cleaning your globe with the damp
cloth, wipe it dry with yet another dry cloth. For a gemstone globe that’s
really dirty, for example one that you found in a flea market, drop one to two
drops of mild dish soap into a basin of water and use the solution to dampen
your cloth. Follow this up with a cloth dampened with nothing but water to
remove the soap residue. Don’t forget to wipe dry with a clean cloth.
With proper maintenance, your gemstone
globe should continue looking beautiful for decades to come. And as the years
go by, along with the continual changes in country boundaries, your globe could
well become a collector’s item in the future.
