Is my stone water-safe?

The question that saves collections

“Can I run my stone under the tap?” is the most frequent question among mineral enthusiasts — and the one most often answered badly. Countless collections have been ruined by well-meaning advice about “cleansing with water” applied without discernment. Our tool examines 32 stones and delivers a clear verdict, with the mineralogy behind it.

The three categories

Water is fine: quartz in all its forms (amethyst, citrine, clear quartz, rose quartz, agate, jasper, carnelian, aventurine, tiger's eye), garnet, obsidian, black tourmaline. These are hard, non-porous, chemically stable minerals. Rinse them, wipe them gently, dry them.

Brief rinse only: the porous or soft stones — turquoise, lapis lazuli, opal, amber, labradorite, moonstone, amazonite, sodalite, fluorite, calcite, rhodochrosite. A quick pass under lukewarm water will not kill them, but prolonged soaking alters their colour or attacks their structure.

Never use water: and here it is serious. Selenite (gypsum) literally dissolves — it melts. Pyrite oxidises, swells and disintegrates, even producing sulphuric acid that can damage neighbouring stones in a display case. Malachite and azurite, both copper carbonates, dull and release copper compounds. Lepidolite flakes apart. Halite (rock salt) disappears, which will surprise no one.

So how do you clean them?

For water-shy stones: a soft dry brush, a microfibre cloth, perhaps a blower. For “cleansing” in the crystal-healing sense, dry methods suit every stone without exception: smoke cleansing, resting on a quartz cluster or inside an amethyst geode, and above all recharging in moonlight, which is harmless to all minerals — unlike full sunlight, which fades amethysts, rose quartz and citrine.