hi welcome to the Thai chest today I'm going to teach you how to clean a men's gold-plated tie clip so here's an example of a vintage gold-plated tie clip and the thing with these two clips that have the gold plate is that you can't use a standard jewelry polishing cloths like this one because it's actually gonna take the plate right off and here I have an example to show you here here's a tie clip that's supposed to be all goals if you turn it over it's all gold but somebody's taken a polishing cloth to it and you can see it's all silver all of the the gold plating is wearing off here so somebody probably went to town with the polishing cloth there so don't use a polishing cloth on the gold plated stuff another thing this method is not going to work with any kind of tie clip that has a stone I'm gonna show you a different method to to clean those ones so this method is good for just any kind of plain tie clips with no stones on them gold plated so here's an example before we get started here's what you're gonna need some soapy water I just use plain dish soap some clear water to rinse some toothpicks and some cotton swabs as well as a soft toothbrush and towel to dry okay so first thing is I as you can see this one's a little rowdy it's just kind of got some some some oil on it take a toothpick I love using toothpicks and I just run it through the grooves here sometimes you'll notice the metal is worn sometimes it's just dirt so just get all that loosened up here be careful where it's black here I usually don't pick too hard there because sometimes the black stuff comes right off and I think it's meant to be there for decoration alright just get it loosened up a little bit you want to give this piece a little bit more shine on it to get its luster back okay so once you've loosened the dirt just go ahead and immerse it in the soapy water and this method was actually shared with me by a well-respected jeweler in this town so comes from a good source I didn't just make it up I'm just gonna give it take soft toothbrush maybe a good a good clean and then you want to rinse it in the clear water and most importantly you have to dry it so the drawing part is really really important because you don't want that spring to rust out and a trick I use two things I usually open it up and clip it like a tie to the towel that way I get all the inside nice and dry there's also one more nook and cranny here right in the back underneath I usually use a cotton swab for that just make sure the spring is nice nice and dry there you go so you can see it looks a lot better now it's a little more shiny and it'll the best of all it's not going to leave any dirt marks on your tie when you go and put it on so I hope this video has been informative if you are looking for great pieces of men's vintage jewelry or some awesome ties check us out as at HS calm