Cleaning Silver With Products at Home

I found several suggestions saying to use baking soda and tin foil in some manner to remove tarnish. I was cleaning some old silver trays that had been in storage for a very long time, so I needed a big container that could hold boiling water to place the items in. I have a stainless steel sink, so I put the stopper in, covered the bottom with aluminum foil, placed one tray in, put in a couple of tablespoons of baking soda on top, then covered it all with boiling water.

After cleaning a couple of pieces, I thought of adding a second sheet of tin foil on top of the piece and it seemed to be an even more efficient way of tackling this task. The secret is that the foil must touch the piece in some way. I let it sit in the solution for about a half hour.

To my amazement, when I rubbed my finger around the edge of the tray, my finger was black from the tarnish that had been brought out of the tray. The sheets of foil, through some chemical reaction, had absorbed the tarnish and were dark with the collection of it. After removing most of the tarnish this way, I used my silver polish to shine it up and protect it. No more of those "but wait" pieces of tin and buying special detergents etc.

Source: Gleaned from many places and perfected by experimenting

By Sandy from Elon, NC

Archives: Request: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home Archived on 07/09/2009 What is the best way to clean silver without chemicals? By maere6836 from NJ Feedback: RE: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home I use a very soft toothbrush and toothpaste and a little warm water to make a paste, brush on with a gentle circular motion. Rinse off and buff with a soft cloth. This also works on jewelery. (06/04/2009) By blackbess RE: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home I use toothpaste. (06/09/2009) By lavonneann Report Spam or Abuse Request: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home Archived on 06/02/2009 I am searching for a homemade recipe for cleaning silver that uses tin foil, baking soda and boiling water. Any help would be most appreciated! Karen from Fargo, ND Feedback: RE: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home I can tell you that the baking soda, salt and boiling water thing does work. However, in my case, there was a bit of odor while the silver was soaking. Please make sure you have a room that is well ventilated. It wasn't over-powering but I don't know how healthy it was. I just noticed it a bit. It went away as soon as I discarded the soaking bath. (10/30/2008) By Guest RE: Cleaning Silver With Products at Home I have one of those electrolytic cleaners sold on television some years ago.The instructions call for WASHING Soda not baking soda. You can achieve the same results with some aluminum foil, VERY hot water and Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. You can find the washing soda in the laundry product section in your grocery store. (10/30/2008) By Nancy Report Spam or Abuse Request: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home Archived on 10/30/2008 I have a lot of silver pieces I'd like to clean up and use. What can I use from here in my home to clean them? I just don't know? Thanks for your help. Diana from Brookpark, OH Answers: RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home I think you can use non-abrasive toothpaste. (06/10/2007) RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home I have been told that good old baking soda is a good polish for silver. I haven't needed to try it out yet but it sounded safe and practical. Hope this helps! (06/10/2007) By frugalmomma RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home Several years ago a "miracle" silverware cleaner was being advertised. You can make it yourself by smooshing up aluminum foil and laying in the bottom of your sink. Make sure you put the stopper in first. Pour baking soda over the paper. Place silver to be cleaned on the paper and pour boiling hot water over all. The tarnish leaches on to the foil and practically magically disappears from your silver. (06/12/2007) By duckie43 RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home Line the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil or use a disposable aluminum pan. Place silver object on top of the aluminum, making sure the silver touches the aluminum. Pour boiling water into the pan until the object is completely covered. Add about baking soda. (about 1/4 cup per liter or 1 cup per gallon of water). As you add the baking soda, the mixture may froth a bit and may spill over. The tarnish will begin to disappear quickly. For badly tarnished silver, you may need to repeat the experiment a 2nd time to remove all traces of tarnish. (06/12/2007) By Kate RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home To add to Duckie's recipe, add some salt as well. You don't need a lot of either. I use a liter or so of hot water, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of salt, and a large square of aluminium foil in the bottom of a pyrex dish. The silver must touch the foil. This is a chemical reaction that replaces the tarnish which is silver sulphate, with silver. The sulpher smell is rather stinky. You may want to use a silver polish to get a nice shine, as if the pieces are really badly tarnished, they will have a whitish look that should polish off. Regular silver polishes have an abrasive that takes off some of the silver over time. (06/12/2007) By louel53 RE: Cleaning Silver with Products at Home These ideas are fine if your silverware does not have an intricate pattern that needs the tarnish in the grooves to be seen. The problem with Tarnix is that it takes all the tarnish off, but it also does not make the silver shine. It leaves a cloudy look to it. I have also used Cream of Tartar in a large non teflon pot and boiled the silver. The Cream of Tartar will also remove tarnish in this fashion, but do not use a pot that has a teflon coating or the Cream of Tartar will pit it and pull the Teflon off your pan as well as the tarnish off your silver. (11/19/2007) By Spunkie Report Spam or Abuse