Vinegar and baking soda: Combine half a cup of vinegar with two tablespoons of baking soda in a bowl of lukewarm water. Submerge the silver items in the solution for at least thirty seconds and up to three minutes. Then remove them, dry them, and buff them with a microfiber cloth.
One nontoxic method is to fill an aluminum pan with hot water, salt and baking soda, stir until it is all dissolved, and then soak the pieces until a chemical reaction occurs that removes the tarnish. This technique is faster than hand cleaning, but may cause pitting and remove the more desirable tarnish called patina.
Cleaning silver with peroxide
pure hydrogen peroxide. Effective, but not always. Depending on the amount of impurities in the metal, peroxide can oxidize or reduce the compound. Therefore, you will get either a well-bleached decoration, or with a touch and spots.
Mixing silver nitrate and hydrogen peroxide makes a good cleaner for medical tools, places where food is made, and water cleaning machines. It can kill many germs like bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Lemon and Salt Bath
Squeeze a lemon into a bowl with 3 tablespoons of salt and hot water and placed the tarnished bracelet to rest in there for 5 minutes. Remove and rub with soft cloth.
Final Verdict. Wright's by Weiman Silver Cleaner and Polish Cream is our overall best silver polish pick. It's safe to use on most, if not all, surfaces, and the cleaning results really shined. If you're looking for a silver polish for jewelry specifically, we recommend the Connoisseurs Dazzle Drops.
The nontoxic technique for making homemade silver polish—which involves placing your silver items in a disposable aluminum pan and then soaking them in a solution of baking soda, salt, and hot water—helps reverse the chemical reaction by using baking soda to lift and transfer the sulfur off of your silverware and onto ...
Dawn dish soap, warm water and a microfiber cloth is another simple way to attempt to clean tarnished jewelry. Although not always strong enough, it is worth trying to remove the outer layer of toning.
In general, oxidized silver jewelry should not be cleaned with jewelry cleaning dips or aggressive polishing that will strip the blackened surface. If cleaning is necessary, use mild dish detergent and soft toothbrush with as little rubbing as possible. The oxidized finish of jewelry can be restored at any time.
Sulfur atoms, which adhere to the silver to create silver sulfide – that dark, tarnished look – are carried by the solution and transfer to the aluminum, forming aluminum sulfide and leaving your silver sparkling. Recycle the aluminum foil and you've got a waste-free way to polish your silver.
Mix two parts baking soda with one part water to make a paste, then gently rub the mixture onto the jewelry. Let the paste dry completely to remove the tarnish.
Best Overall: Aluminum Foil, Baking Soda & Hot Water
"You just dump it in the sink and let it soak and it does a darn good job of getting even heavily oxidized tarnish off if you leave it long enough... Then you just give it a good rinse."
If you look online, you'll find examples where BKF fans have used our powder on gold and silver (sterling silver is OK). However, we advise against it.
The material your pieces of jewellery are made from will dictate the cleaning products that are most suitable for cleaning them. If your jewellery is made from silver, then you'll likely find that baking soda and vinegar are the best ingredients for making the material shine.
Cleaning silver with harsh abrasive products like chlorine bleach, or storing it using rubber bands and newspaper, is a no-no. Consider swapping harsh polish for this soapy hot water method if you're not dealing with items that are badly tarnished, but rather just look dull and a little lackluster.
You can use Coke to clean silver, but it's best for small pieces. Tarnish is removed by the acid in the Coke. It should only take a few minutes to work, so keep an eye on it and remove the silver as soon as it looks clean.
BADA, The British Antique Dealers' Association, suggests washing antique silver in a solution of mild detergent in hot water. Once the item has been rinsed in hot water, it can be buffed with a soft cloth. For more heavily tarnished items, a proprietary silver polish can be used, which will clean and protect.
Dust your silver every so often using a soft cloth—it will help keep the tarnish away. And whenever you start to see it slightly tarnish (which will vary depending on the piece and how pure the silver is—less sterling tarnishes more quickly), simply give it a light cleaning using a gentle dish soap (like Dawn).
The Magnet Test
"If your magnet sticks strongly to the piece, it has a ferromagnetic core and is not silver." Fake silver or silver-plated items are generally made of other metals. This is an easy test that can give you a good idea of whether your item is real silver.
You can easily clean silver with aluminum foil, baking soda and hot water. This method uses electrolytic action instead of chemical-polish abrasion and removes the tarnish from oxidized silver without removing any of the underlying metal.