How to Clean Sterling Silver Jewelry With Baking Soda

Sterling silver reacts with moisture to create a layer of tarnish or oxidation on its surface. Baking soda activated by boiling water in the presence of aluminum, will dislodge the tarnish by making it bind with the aluminum, leaving the sterling silver clean and shiny again. This is the simple, organic way to clean and polish your sterling silver jewelry.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Baking soda
• Aluminum foil or pan
• Glass or plastic dish
• Boiling water
• Plastic or wood utensil
• Absorbent towel
• Soft cloth

1. Boil just enough water to submerge all of the sterling silver pieces.

2. 
   Use aluminum to remove tarnish from sterling silver.

   Line a glass or plastic dish with a slightly crumpled piece of aluminum foil. If you have a small aluminum pan that you won't be needing for food preparation again, you can use that instead.

3. Lay your jewelry on the aluminum, making sure the silver touches the aluminum.

4. 
   Sprinkle baking soda on the jewelry.

   Sprinkle a thin layer of baking soda over the jewelry.

5. 
   Pour boiling water on the baking soda.

   Pour enough boiling water to immerse the jewelry. Bubbling should occur, giving off a rotten-egg odor (the sulfuric gases released by the cleaning action).

6. With a wood or plastic utensil, gently move the pieces around to ensure that all of the silver surfaces come in contact with the aluminum. You will notice that the silver has become bright again.

7. Rinse the jewelry under tap water. To ensure that you don't lose small pieces like earrings and pendants, put a sieve over the drain to catch whatever may slip off your fingers.

8. 
   Clean and shiny sterling silver jewelry

   Gently wipe the pieces with an absorbent towel and polish with a soft cloth.

Tips & Warnings

• If you see yourself cleaning sterling silver on a regular basis, you may want to keep and recycle the aluminum pans used for takeout or frozen cakes and pies.
• To minimize tarnishing, store sterling silver in a moisture-free environment. Use zip lock bags, anti tarnish strips (available at jewelry stores) or moisture absorbent products (available in some pharmacies).
• You will also find moisture absorbent packets in some merchandise like shoes, medication, and accessories that are sensitive to moisture. You can reuse these packets by putting some in your jewelry box to minimize tarnish on your sterling silver pieces.
• You can use this technique to clean small pieces of sterling silver flatware and dining accessories.
• The baking soda method of cleaning is recommended only for jewelry that is all sterling silver and those that incorporate plastic, glass or crystal beads. Some gemstones are affected by the baking soda reaction, for example, turquoise.

Resources

• Reader's Digest: Extraordinary Uses for Baking Soda

[majeral]

on 10/29/2009 I just tried this and it worked great thank you...

[chefpierre]

on 10/14/2009 Baking soda as a silver cleaner does remove tarnish but it does NOT polish it. It is removing the tarnish with along with some silver as well. Just be careful if you are using this process on silver plated objects.
My restaurant has been using Silvermate liquid silver cleaner for many years. It takes less than 30 seconds to clean and polish sterling, silver plate, gold and gold plate w/o rubbing at all and is is over 96% water so it is very mild. We will use nothing else. Look them up if you want www.silvermatecompany.com

[amazedanew]

on 4/2/2009 I have added a link from my website to this article :)

[amazedanew]

on 4/2/2009 Excellent to know! I make sterling silver jewelry and sometimes it tarnishes before I get it shipped off! I'll try this :)

[Turborabbit]

on 7/23/2008 The real cause of the tarnish on the sterling silver is not moisture but sulfur dioxide. it bonds with the silver makeing that gray color. The baking soda works to break off this sulfur and allow it to turn into hydrogen sulfide gas, which is what you smell and also aluminum oxide, on the aluminum foil. the most common source for sulfur dioxide gas in homes is, matches, kerosene lamps and coal stoves.