How to Clean Silver with Aluminum
Your silver jewelry, silverware and other items made of silver eventually will tarnish, becoming dark and dull due to sulfur substances in the air. The dark film comes from black silver sulfide, which you can remove by placing your silver in a liquid to dissolve it or by rubbing your silver with a liquid, then washing it off. The disadvantage to these methods is that you lose a little bit of silver in the process. The chemicals you need to clean and restore the shine of your silver without losing any silver may already await you in your kitchen. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Tear off enough aluminum foil to line the bottom of the pan.
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Place your silver object directly on the aluminum foil so it contacts the foil.
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In another pan, bring to boil a gallon of water, or enough to fill the pan with the silver and foil. Take the pan of boiling water to the sink.
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Measure 1 cup of baking soda for each gallon of water you just boiled. For example, if you have just a half gallon of boiling water, use 1/2 cup of baking soda.
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Mix the baking soda with the hot water. You will notice the water forming bubbles.
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Pour the solution of baking soda and hot water into the pan with the aluminum foil and silver, covering the silver completely. You will see the tarnish immediately begin to disappear, restoring your silver in a few minutes. If your silver item has a lot of tarnish, reuse the same baking soda/water solution and bring it to a boil, then cover the silver with it again until the tarnish disappears completely.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not clean silver coins with this baking soda and aluminum process if you do not know the value of your coins. Leave them tarnished; restoring their shine reduces their value.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit silver cups image by Hao Wang from Fotolia.com
