Cleaning Silver Jewelry with Baking Soda
by Boiling
If you
have any objects made from silver or
plated with silver, you know that the
bright, shiny surface of silver
gradually darkens and becomes less
shiny. This happens because silver
undergoes a chemical reaction with
sulfur-containing substances in the air.
You can reverse the tarnishing reaction,
and make the silver shiny again.
For this procedure you will need:
* 2 pans, one pan/bowl large enough to
completely immerse the silver jewelry
(or flatware) in and one to boil water
in.
* aluminum foil to cover the bottom of
the pan
* enough water to fill the pan
* stove or hotplate to heat the water
(no microwave)
* baking soda, about 1 cup per gallon of
water
Line the bottom of the pan with aluminum
foil. Set the silver object on top of
the aluminum foil. Make sure the
silver touches the aluminum.
Heat the water to boiling. Remove it
from the heat and place it in a sink. To
the hot water, add about one cup of
baking soda for each gallon of water.
(If you need only half a gallon of
water, use half a cup of baking soda.)
The mixture will froth a bit and may
spill over; this is why you put it in
the sink.
Pour the hot baking soda and water
mixture into the pan with the silver
item, and completely cover the silver.
Almost immediately, the tarnish will
begin to disappear. If the silver is
only lightly tarnished, all of the
tarnish will disappear within several
minutes. If the silver is badly
tarnished, you may need to reheat the
baking soda and water mixture, and give
the silver several treatments to remove
all of the tarnish.
Remove
and rinse completely and pat dry.
A good
method for liquid silver items.
Caution should be
used if cleaning gemstones or marcasite
jewelry as this can cause the glue to
loosen and jewelry to fall apart.
|
