Cleaning Silver the easiest way

[herm]

G'day from Brisbane folks. We have silver jewelry and silver cutlery that's tarnished. What's the best way of removing the tarnish, and getting the silver cleaned up, so it looks new again?

[Paul Robbins]

The tarnish is formed by a chemical reaction between silver and sulfur to form silver sulfide. The reaction, at its simplest, is:

2Ag + S ---> Ag₂S

Silver tarnish happens when you've got sulfur around, so foodstuffs like eggs, mustard, onions and cabbage are going to turn your silverware black quicker than if you don't have these foodstuffs around.

When there's tarnish on silver, you can use simple chemistry, or electrochemistry to remove it. This is much quicker and easier than polishing. It's also much more protective of your silver than using an even mildly abrasive cleaner, which can leave tiny scratches on the metal.

Silver Cleaning Recipe

1. Dissolve a few spoonfuls of baking soda in a bowl of hot (not boiling) water. The precise amounts are not important. (The baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Using chemistry jargon, you've made an electrolyte solution.)

2. Place a sheet of aluminum foil in a glass baking dish and pour your water/baking soda on top.

3. Place the silver item you'd like to remove the tarnish from into the water/baking soda, so that the silver is in contact with the aluminum foil. You'll be able to see the silver becoming cleaner almost instantly. After a few seconds, or a minute or two, your silver will be clean.

4. Remove the clean silver from the baking dish, rinse with clean water, and dry with a soft cloth.

[thor3436]

also you can get a pie pan [aluminium] and fill it with water and put in baking soda , and leave your silver in it for a few mins. if you go to the main page of this site with the periodic table click on silver and then there is a video of it . i did this with my own silver coin

[simmy]

I didn't know you could clean silver as easy as this. I thought you needed polish and plenty of elbow grease. I'll try this out and pass the tip on.