Hi all,
I just *know* someone remembers how to clean silver jewellery with the use of aluminium foil - I thought I had remembered how but since the tarnish is still *on* my jewellery I can safely assume I did it wrong.
as I recall it one scrunches up some foil, puts it mat side up and the covers it with warm water and sprinkles some salt on. I used a plastic bowl for this as I wanted to keep the sink available of other things.
does any one know what went wrong?
TIA!
The way i do it is to put some water softener powder in a pot of water, then set it to boil. When it reaches a rolling boil, turn the burner off, and put a sheet of heavy duty foil at the bottom, shiny side up. I then immerse my silver piece and leave it there for a few minutes. Using tongs, I pull the piece out of the pot and rub gently with a soft cloth. For stubborn tarnish, I just repeat the process until it's gone. Sometimes I have to add more powder, or use less, depending on how tarnished the pieces are. Just another method...but it keeps the silver from getting scratched or otherwise damaged if you were to use any of the polishes. The water smells a bit like sulfer afterwards, but it's perfectly safe to dump down the drain.
Bobbie did u look at the website posted before?
Thanks for the help everyone!
it was the lack of backing soda that did it.. my earrings and bracelets are all nice and shiny again :-D
Warning: do NOT use a alumnimum pan, or you'll end with more tarnish than when you started! [And no, I don't know why.]
good thing I stuck with the plastic bowl then! mind you I only have stainless steel pans.
I love science! This was too cool to resist, so I got out both of my silver items (goblet, and picture frame) and did them both. Wow, they are really shiny now. Hmm. The whole flat smells like the hairdresser's when someone is getting a perm. I've opened the windows... but it was worth it. I wish I had something else to detarnish. It was too fun to stop at 2 items.
-- Jo in Scotland
It's an electrolitic reaction so it oughtn't bother hard gemstones at all. At least not real ones. Most of the man made 'genuine' stones should be alright as well. When you get into the less expensive pastes and such, who knows?
As usual pearls, and soft or fragile stones such as opals, turquoise, malachite, amber, tiger eye, etc. should only be subjected to cleaning processes by a professional or somebody who won't weep at their loss.
NightMist
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