Cleaning Silver

[AberdeenAl]

Has anyone got any tips for cleaning badly tarnished silver? I have tried various products but nothing is budging the really bad bits and the black spots. Thanks.

[davidanthony]

have lots of silver which often gets tarnished and have found the bog standard Duraglit Silver to work perfectly. Alternativley put it in a bucket of Coca Cola, that stuff will move anything including the lining of your stomach

[woofgang]

Get a plastic or glass bowl bigger than your object. Put a piece of baking foil in the base about the same size as the base. Fill with hand hot water. Dump in around one level tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda per pint of water (approx) immerse your silver and wait for the fizzing to stop. If the fizzing stops before the item is clean, make up a fresh batch, use new foil and repeat. If the piece has intricate detail use a soft (baby) toothbrush to ensure that the dolution gets right into the design. Rinse and buff. If there are still dark patches, chech that your piece is sterling and not plate.

[bert_h]

No, no, not the Coca Cola!

The tarnish on real silver is different from the tarnish on silver plate. Stubborn black bits sounds like silver plate, real silver gets a fairly soft brownish colour.

Better than Coca Cola is a very hot (but not boiling) solution of 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon washing-up liquid, and a half-pint to a pint of very hot water, but don't leave it in for more than a couple of minutes. It should loosen the tarnish enough to let you finish it off nicely with a normal silver cleaner.

[boxtops]

I use silver dip, mix with hot water and bung it all in the sink.

[AberdeenAl]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I guess what I have is silver plate, given what Bert_h has said. I will give it a go when I have a chance to get the appropriate ingredients.