Cleaning Your Silver
When you surf the internet for advice about how to clean your collection of silver correctly, you will be hit with millions of different ways and methods of doing so. If you type “cleaning silver” into the google search engine you will get 17,000,000 results thrown up, that’s a huge amount of websites for you to browse through and then decide which method is the right one for you and your silver. There is quite a lot of uncertainty regarding which methods are good practices and which methods are bad practices for cleaning your silver. With so many different cleaning concoctions such as pastes and dips and un-abrasive liquids and chemicals on offer to the consumer it becomes a headache to make a decision on which method you should use. Here at Buy Silver Antiques we have put together a guide to help point you in the right direction for choosing which method will satisfy your needs. Below are a few of the most favoured methods for keeping your silver in tip top condition.
First of all you must know whether the piece of silver you want to clean is Solid (sterling) Silver or Silver Plate because some Solid Silver cleaners are much too harsh for cleaning Silver plate.
Washing in Soapy Water
If your silverware is used on a regular basis then gently washing it in warm (not hot) soapy water will be sufficient enough to keep it clean and almost tarnish free. After washing it carefully dry with a soft cotton cloth.
Tarnish Removal
Tarnish is caused by a chemical reaction between silver and substances in the air containing sulfur (sulphur) resulting in silver-sulfide (sulphide), which will eventually turn your nice shiny silver to black. There are numerous sulphur carrying candidates around the home such as certain types of paint, wool, rubber gloves and even food especially eggs. Keeping your collection of silver in a dry warm place is also advisable for keeping tarnish to a minimum because humidity and dampness only speed up the tarnishing process. The first sign of any tarnish will be a yellowish tinge slowly turning brown then eventually black but the above method of frequently washing with warm soapy water should prevent your silver getting to the latter stage. If however your tarnish becomes black and difficult to remove you will have to respond by using a polish of some kind, which polish you use depends on how bad your piece of silver is tarnished. There are many commercial silver liquid or paste cleaning polishes on the market today - all claiming to be the best – but we advise you to use the least abrasive polish you can find preferably one containing a tarnish protection. Some polishes (mainly liquid) request that you wash your silverware after polishing; this is a good indication that the polish is not too abrasive and therefore a good choice to make.
Note: When carrying out either of the above methods of cleaning never use anything abrasive on your silver such as wire wool or scourers on some sponges. If you do your silver will become pitted and porous resulting in your item becoming more tarnished and at a more rapid rate than previously.
Electrochemical Reduction (A Galvanic Treatment)
Electrochemical Reduction belongs to the Electrochemistry branch of Chemistry! Are you with us so far?
Don’t be fazed by the above definition we will not be going into all the elaborate details of why this method works, just how to use it, if you so wish. If you would like to try this method of cleaning your silverware you will need some washing soda (sodium carbonate), an aluminium plate or tray (some people use tin foil or baco-foil as it’s called here in the UK), a bowl deep enough to fully submerge your piece of silver in. If you are using the baco-foil/tin foil then line your bowl with the foil, if you are using the aluminium plate then place this in the bottom of the bowl. Place your piece of silver into the bowl (on top of the plate if you’re using this method) carefully so as not to scratch the surface of the silver and place the bowl into your sink or a bathtub because of spillage. Now boil enough water to cover your piece of silver, you can now sprinkle the soda over your silver item or add it to the boiling water (one cup of soda per gallon of water). Now pour the water into the bowl covering your piece of silver. The water will start to foam and fizz, but don’t worry this is a chemical reaction and it’s the result we want. What is happening is that an Electrochemical Reduction is taking place whereby the silver-sulfide (tarnish) is being removed from your piece of silver and deposited onto the aluminium plate or foil you put in the bowl – clever hey? Once the soda has dissolved in the water you should see clearly whether your item of silver has been cleaned sufficiently, if so dry it thoroughly with a soft cloth, if not you can repeat the process. So basically what has happened is a reversal process where initially one chemical reaction created the tarnish and another chemical reaction has taken it away.
Before you rush off to the bathroom or kitchen to put this chemistry experiment to the test you need to know the pros and cons about using this method. In the world of silver collecting the use of Electrochemical Reduction to clean ones silver is still open to debate. Many collectors swear by this method and use only this method, while many others are not quite convinced it’s the best way, stating that over use of this process may cause your silver to tarnish more quickly than silver that has been polished instead. So the jury’s still out on this one and has been for many years and probably many years to come.
Chemical Dips
Chemical Dips are mostly used by professional silver restorers to remove stubborn tarnish marks from pieces of silver. The dips are made from acid and other agents to compound the tarnish thus removing it from the silverware in question. The dips are spread onto the silver with cotton balls and more often than not when the tarnish is removed the piece of silverware will need to be professionally polished to regain its original finish. Here at Buy Silver Antiques we do not recommend this cleaning method to anyone other than a professional restorer as it can be both damaging to your silver and hazardous to your health because of the agents used in this process. If you feel that this method is the only way to clean your silverware then we advise you to take it to the professionals and let them take care of it. It may cost you a few pennies but worth it compared with ruined silver and damaged health.
Again we do not recommend using Chemical Dips to anyone other than a professional!
The cleaning tips on this page are for guidelines only.
Our advice here at Buy Silver Antiques is always to seek professional help wherever possible.