How to Give Sterling Silver A Salty Soda Polish

We are living in a time of eco-consciousess, and should remember to buy and use less to reduce our footprint on the earth. At home right now you have ingredients for polishing sterling silver. I will give you two methods for polishing with the same three basic ingredients. You can do either one, or combine for darkly tarnished pieces. I have used this on a spoon and with jewelry.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A pan or bowl
• Warm water
• Salt
• Baking Soda
• Aluminum Foil

1. Choose a bowl or pan large enough to contain the items you want to polish, and line with aluminum foil, shiny side up.

2. Shake in some salt, about two tablespoons, and shake in some baking soda, about two tablespoons. This measurement is for a cake pan or salad bowl and will increase if you are using a very large bowl or even, a bathtub. I have never used a bathtub because I have polished smaller items, but increase the amounts of salt and soda accordingly.

3. Fill the lined salted and soda-sprinkled pan or bowl with warm or hot water.

4. Put the silver pieces in the water, completely submerged. Walk away and do other things and come back every few minutes to check progress. Depending on the tarnish, the sterling silver will clean quickly. This is chemistry and I am not able to explain why it works, but it's all about reaction. Now, if there are parts of your silver that are darker, or you do not have foil...

5. Make a paste in the palm of your hand using salt, baking soda and warm water. Paste is thick, not thin. Rub this into the tarnished silver with your fingers, and wipe away the darkness.

6. Rinse clean under the faucet and either rub dry with paper towel or air dry.

Tips & Warnings

• This is a clean polish. You may need to take a jewelry chamois to bring up the cleaned silver to a bright sheen.
• There's a warning out there about the aluminum foil method wearing down your silver, but really it is tarnish that is corrosive. That green patina that covers the toga-clad figure of The Statue of Liberty is a corrosive layer to the copper. What can you do? Rub your silver pieces with soft cloths frequently to avoid tarnishing. Let the state of New York concern itself with Lady Liberty.

[fastfreddie]

on 1/23/2009 I found out from experience that this process can remove silver from your items! I was told by a silversmith that over time, it removed my silverplate from my antique flatware set. I was devistated! I had to have it replated, which wasn't cheap! He told me to buy silver cleaner called Silvermate. It is a non- abrasive liquid and is non-toxic and requires no scrubbing and only takes less than 30 seconds to clean and polish silver. Do yourself a favor and try it.