How to remove tarnish from silver with the least amount of damage

Many methods of removing tarnish from silver use abrasive techniques or products that wear the tarnish down and over time, damage the silver. This technique converts the tarnished part back to silver chemically, causing less damage than most conventional methods.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• an aluminum pan large enough to hold your silver items
• baking soda
• enough boiling water to cover the silver item

1. Fill the pan with enough boiling water to cover the silver. Remove from heat.
2. Add the silver to the water
3. Add 1 tsp of baking soda per cup of water
4. The mixture will fizz and you may smell sulfur. Allow the silver to soak for 10 minutes
5. Remove the silver, rinse and wipe clean. If traces of tarnish remain, repeat the above steps.

Tips & Warnings

• Only use this on tarnished silver that you know to be silver and you know to be stained by tarnish only. Use this at your own risk. The pan MUST be aluminum in order for this work as the baking soda, silver and tarnish react to the aluminum. Other types of pans will not work.