How to remove tarnish and restore shine to a silver chain

Silver is beautiful, products made from it look elegant, but the metal has one peculiarity - it darkens over time due to oxidation. To keep your silver chain shiny, you need to know the causes of oxidation and how to clean the product at home. The tools and means required are the simplest: foil, citric acid, potatoes, vinegar or soda.

Foil

Silver is fairly easy to clean using cling film. It contains aluminum, which reacts with silver sulfide to remove blackening.

Option 1:

1. Place a piece of foil on the bottom of the pan.
2. Fill the container with water to 3-4 cm.
3. Add 2 tbsp. l. citric acid or baking soda.
4. Place silver jewelry in the vessel.
5. Bring the water to a boil and keep it there for 3-5 minutes.
6. If the metal is not lightened, continue boiling.

Option 2:

1. Lay out a sheet of foil.
2. Place one or more silver items on it, pour 2 tbsp on them. l. salt and pour in some clean water.
3. Shape the foil with the contents into an envelope and place in an empty pan.
4. Pour a soap solution prepared from 1 glass of water and 1 tsp into the vessel. planed laundry soap.
5. Bring the contents to a boil and remove from heat.
6. Soak the silver in hot water for 15 minutes, remove and rinse with water.

Soap solution

To clean your jewelry, a regular soap solution will be enough. This product is especially good for the same “silver”, for jewelry with pseudo-gold plating, as well as “glass” (rhinestones):

1. You take soap (the more caustic it is, the better), dissolve it in water. Try to make the solution as concentrated as possible.
2. Add a thickener (glycerin is fine).
3. You dip your pets into a caustic foam “bath.” Keep it in it for 10-15 minutes.
4. You shake the “bathtub” a little so that all the rust and dirt comes off more easily.
5. Pull it out and wipe it with a sponge (soft).
6. Finally you rinse with water.

If the shine on your jewelry has not completely returned and it is still dull, you will have to clean it again:

1. Add a tablespoon of ammonia to the foam bath.
2. You take a toothbrush and soak it in the soapy solution.
3. Rub it well on chains and stones.
4. You wash off the remaining foam from them.

Well, now everything is in order - the trinkets are prettier again.

Lemon acid

At home, it is convenient to use powdered citric acid to clean silver - it is used in preparations, it is used to remove scale in a kettle, so the spice is available in almost every home.

Option 1:

1. Fill a half-liter glass jar halfway with water.
2. Place 50 g of citric acid, a piece of copper wire and decoration into the vessel.
3. Heat the jar in a water bath, placing it in a pan of water.
4. Boil the chain for 30 minutes.

Option 2:

1. Prepare an acidic solution in a saucepan (use 5 parts of water for 1 part of powder).
2. Place a piece of foil and place a silver chain on it.
3. Bring the liquid to a boil and continue boiling until the silver is completely cleaned.

How to clean mixed metals or alloys?

Silver is a delicate and soft material, so other metals can be added to it to increase the strength and life of the jewelry. You can find out the ratio of metals in the alloy by the sample indicated on the product. Sterling silver 720 is used for solder or clasps on jewelry; starting from 750 sterling silver, cutlery is made. Jewelry is mainly made from 925 sterling silver or purer metals. The lower the sample, the faster the product will turn black.

All cleaning methods listed above are suitable for jewelry above 700 standard. Whereas metal of a lower standard may contain unexpected impurities that can deteriorate from heating or exposure to ammonia. It is recommended to clean alloys with soapy water or soda, and if you know the composition for certain, you can find out more about the chemical properties of the metals it contains.

The effective ways in which you can clean mixed metals are as follows: Let's say your jewelry is made of silver and gold. Then it’s worth studying the properties of these metals and seeing what cleaning methods are suitable for two metals at the same time. This also applies to gold-plated products or products coated with other metals.

Potato

Potatoes and their decoction are good for cleaning silver that has darkened.

Option 1:

1. Grind large potatoes on a grater.
2. Add a little water to the resulting slurry so that the mass remains thick.
3. Place the chain in the resulting mixture for 2-3 minutes.

Option 2:

1. Boil potato peelings or jacket potatoes.
2. Strain the broth.
3. Immerse the chain in it.
4. Place on the stove and boil for 15-20 minutes.

Option 3:

1. Pour the strained potato broth into a ceramic bowl.
2. Place foil and silver decoration on its bottom.
3. Leave for 15 minutes, then remove, rinse and wipe dry.

What do you need to know before cleaning your silver?

What is the alloy of your silverware?

What cleans one silver well will leave stains on another. This especially applies to home remedies (soda, salt, citric acid, etc.). The reaction of silver to a cleaning agent depends on the amount of impurities in the composition. So in sample 925 there are about 7-8% impurities, and in sample 800 there are about 10-12%. Therefore, check what the alloy consists of or test the product on a small piece of silver.

Silver service on a festive dinner table

How and with what to polish silver utensils

Silver is a soft metal and scratches easily. Therefore, do not polish it with paper towels, napkins, toilet paper or other rough materials. It is better to use soft flannel material for these purposes.

As for polishing, do it in long, back and forth strokes. Polishing in small circles, on the contrary, is a bad idea. This way there is more chance of scratching the devices.

An example of polishing silver utensils with soft materials

What to do after cleaning and polishing silverware

Clean your silver a week or at least three days before using it. The fact is that only a few days after cleaning does a protective layer form on the surface of the silver, preventing it from changing color. If you do not follow this rule, the silver will quickly darken and cleaning will go down the drain.

Silverware in a case

Why Abrasives Are Not Always Good for Cleaning Silverware

Tooth powder, soda, etc., which are so often used to clean silver, are abrasive substances. If you rub silver with them intensively or do not maintain the proportion, the dishes can be ruined. Therefore, remember, it is better to leave one small speck than to completely ruin the device.

Dark silverware

Vinegar

Liquid spice is diluted acetic acid, or essence. Therefore, it effectively removes dark deposits from jewelry. If it is weak, clean the chain simply with a napkin soaked in vinegar.

If the darkening is severe, proceed according to the following scheme:

1. Pour vinegar into the bottom of a ceramic or glass container.
2. Place the chain there.
3. Leave for 2 hours.
4. Rinse with water.
5. Wipe dry, wrapping it in a napkin or terry towel.

Tip After boiling, do not stress the chain by rinsing in cold water. It is advisable to let the decoration cool slightly, which will not take more than 2 minutes, then pour warm boiled water on it.

Carbonated sweet soda (Cokes, Sprites)

Coca-Cola may not be very good for your teeth, but with jewelry it's completely different:

1. You heat the sweet soda in a non-glass, opaque container.
2. You dip your rings into heated cola. Boil for 15 minutes.
3. After this, all dark spots, all rust can be removed very easily - just rinse the jewelry with water, wipe with a dry cloth and you can put it on.

Well, watch the video with a couple more valuable tips:

Now you know a whole bunch of very simple and cheap ways to restore the beauty of jewelry dear to your heart.

Source

Soda

It is a gentle abrasive and allows you to gently polish the chain, removing dark deposits so that the jewelry shines.

Option 1:

1. Pour baking soda onto a napkin in a line.
2. Place a chain on top.
3. Roll up the fabric.
4. With one hand, lightly grasp the chain and wipe it through a napkin, with the other hand, pull it through the soda.
5. If oxides still remain, straighten the napkin, collect the soda in a line again, add fresh soda if necessary, and repeat cleaning.
6. Shake off the shiny chain, removing any remaining powder, and wipe with a soft cloth, such as flannel.

Option 2:

1. Get a soda slurry by combining the spice with water in a 3:1 ratio.
2. Rub the chain with the paste, especially carefully in areas with strong blackening.
3. Rinse the jewelry with water and dry with a dry soft cloth.

Option 3:

1. Cover the bottom of the glass vessel with foil.
2. Place 1 tbsp on top. l. soda and 1 tbsp. l. salt.
3. Add water (2 tbsp) and stir, allowing the ingredients to dissolve (due to the high concentration, the substances will not dissolve completely).
4. Immerse the silver item in the resulting mixture and leave for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the decoration from the darkened composition.

Advice: Bracelets and rings with stones should not be cleaned with salt or soda. Exposure to these substances can cause gemstones to fade.

Garlic

Garlic not only wards off vampires, but also restores the sunny shine to your jewelry. Especially if it is made of copper:

1. Take a couple of garlic cloves and finely grate them.
2. Add salt to the grated garlic (no more than a pinch).
3. Apply to darkened jewelry.
4. After 8-10 minutes, wash off the garlic.
5. Wash the chains and ring thoroughly (with soap) to remove the not very pleasant garlic smell.
6. Wipe the stones with a dry cloth.

Ammonia alcohol

This caustic substance in the smallest concentration can restore the shine of silver jewelry.

Option 1:

1. Prepare a mixture of water (100 ml), ammonia (1 tsp) and a small amount of dish gel.
2. Place the chain in the resulting solution.
3. When the metal brightens, remove the silver, rinse with water and dry.

Option 2:

1. Combine water, toothpaste, ammonia, taken in equal parts.
2. Stir and lower the chain into the mixture.
3. Leave for half an hour.
4. Then polish with a toothbrush.
5. Rinse and dry with flannel.

Toothpaste

Toothpaste perfectly restores metal jewelry (gold-plated):

1. Just spread the paste on a toothbrush that you haven’t brushed your teeth with for a long time, and use it to clean toilets and tidy up. Important! The softer the bristles of the brush, the better.
2. Brush over beads and metal stones.
3. Rinse off the paste with running water.
4. Well, wipe the beads and ring with a dry cloth.

Jewelry that imitates gold items that has begun to darken should never be cleaned with abrasives. They will erase all the pseudo-gilding (spraying) - you’ll just have to throw away the cute trinkets.

Chalk isn't just for playing hopscotch and drawing on chalkboards. He also cleans jewelry first-class in the comfort of your own home.

1. We make a chalk solution - dilute 2 tablespoons of chalk in 100 ml of water.
2. Dip the faded jewelry into the solution for 2-3 minutes.
3. We take the trinkets to the surface, take a brush (not just any brush, but one with soft bristles) and walk it over your favorite pendants and earrings.
4. We wash off the remaining chalk and wipe it with a dry cloth (or better yet, a woolen napkin).

Now your jewelry will once again cause envy.

Vodka with lemon juice

This method requires a lot of time, but not effort: the chain is soaked and left.

Instructions:

1. Combine and stir water (200 g), vodka (1 tbsp), detergent (2 tsp), freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 tsp).
2. Place silver into the resulting liquid.
3. Leave for half a day.
4. Take out the jewelry, hold it under water and polish with wool.

Regular detergent

Even the most common inexpensive and not very caustic detergents will save your pets from traces of decay. They “rejuvenate” their crystal (rhinestones) and plastic decorations especially well:

1. You drip a little product into a container (preferably plastic) with water.
2. You put your rhinestones there for 15 minutes.
3. Every 2-3 minutes, gently shake the container so that the detergent “works” better.
4. Then you wash the jewelry in water.

If not all the rust has succumbed, add a little ammonia to the container and repeat the procedure.

Other folk methods

A few more methods to make your silver chain look like new:

• wipe with olive oil (apply it to a napkin);
• boil for 2-3 minutes in Coca-Cola, Sprite or leave in the drink for up to half a day;
• polish with a toothbrush with chalk, tooth powder or paste;
• soak in a salty solution (1 teaspoon of spice per glass of water);
• remove dirt with an eraser.

Advice If the jewelry is encrusted with gems, this must be taken into account when choosing a cleaning method. Definitely, boiling will not benefit a silver bracelet with mineral inserts.

Milk serum

You won’t believe it, but the most ordinary whey with darkened jewelry works real miracles:

1. Pour the whey into a small glass.
2. Add salt (30 g).
3. You take a rag, apply the serum to it and thoroughly treat the jewelry with it.
4. Wash your jewelry with water and wipe it with a dry cloth.

Now you can wear jewelry with confidence - everyone will think that you just bought it. And to best match it with your clothes, read the tips here: How to choose jewelry for a dress with a round neckline.

Store-bought drugs

The industry offers a good range of special products for restoring the aesthetic appearance of silver jewelry. The following are popular among housewives:

• Aladdin liquid. The chain is placed in it for a few seconds (up to 20), and then rubbed with the napkin from the kit. The product cannot be used to clean products with stones;
• Talisman set of paste and napkins. The silver is rubbed with paste and then polished with a microfiber cloth until shiny;
• "Foam" product. It comes in foamy consistency and liquid, the latter is contraindicated for jewelry with organic gems, enamel coating, or blackening. The foam is applied with a soft cloth to the chain and left for 2 minutes. The decoration is soaked in the liquid composition for 4-8 minutes.

General cleaning rules

In Tsarist Russia, noble houses kept a specially trained footman to clean silverware, and the worker devoted almost the entire day to this activity. To avoid spending as much time and clean your silver items quickly, there are several general recommendations:

Before proceeding directly to chemical cleaning, the product must be degreased and washed from dirt in warm soapy water.

1. Rinse in clean water - this will save time.
2. You need to take care of your silver so that you can spend less time cleaning it later. Set aside a specific time in your schedule to care for it - a regular procedure (at least once a month) will help avoid serious darkening.
3. When cleaning any product, you must handle the marking area very carefully. If the sample is erased or distorted, this will significantly reduce the total cost of the product, especially in 50 years, when it becomes an antique.
4. It is better to entrust extremely expensive, rare jewelry to the hand of a master.

Is it possible to boil silver?

If you are sure that you have silver in stock, then you can boil it. When boiling, chemical reactions are accelerated, and the result will be better, but if the product is only coated with silver, then boiling can ruin it. Be careful with hard water. After boiling in water with increased hardness, a white coating will remain on the products.

Jewelry containing some precious stones and pearls should also not be boiled.

How to properly care for silver jewelry

The dark layer appears due to the contact of silver with the sweaty human body, the influence of moisture, and a reaction to the ingredients of cosmetics. Therefore, it is recommended to remove the chains before training, visiting swimming pools, saunas, beaches, massage rooms, and before caring procedures using cosmetics in the décolleté area.

Advice During treatment, you should also stop wearing a chain: the composition of sweat often changes under the influence of illness and medications, and the jewelry will darken faster.

Care instructions:

• It is recommended to wipe jewelry with a soft cloth after each wear.
• Silver items should be stored separately from other jewelry.
• Once every 2 months you need to clean your silver using one of the methods given above.

Maintaining the aesthetic appearance of silver jewelry is so easy if you don't neglect it. There are many recipes for cleaners, so everyone will choose the most suitable one for themselves. You just have to wipe your favorite chain from time to time, and it will always shine like it was just bought.

Why silverware darkens: 4 reasons

Reason No. 1 - silver alloy

Any silverware, trays, dishes, etc. will darken over time (the exception is rhodium silver). Therefore, cleaning can only maintain the appearance of silver, but it cannot be completely corrected. The standard 925 alloy is approximately 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, including copper. These two substances (silver and copper) interact with sulfur compounds in the air and, as a result, oxidize. In fact, it looks like a dark coating.

IMPORTANT: The degree and intensity of darkening of silver devices depends on the percentage of copper in the alloy - the more copper, the faster the product becomes covered with a dark coating.

The spoon on the left (darkest) has the highest copper content in the alloy, the spoon on the right has medium copper content, and the spoon in the middle has the lowest copper content (lightest).

Silverware in three different alloys and compositions

Reason No. 2 - improper storage

• Silver does not tolerate moisture . Moisture accelerates darkening. Therefore, you should not put silverware in a cabinet near the oven, hood, dishwasher, etc.
• The proximity to plastic and rubber also does not suit silver. Therefore, you should not store it in plastic containers. A decorative box made of wood, lined with flannel, is ideal. A simpler option is foil or parchment. They will prevent silver from oxidizing.

Store each silver item separately from each other. Silver is a soft metal, so it scratches quickly. Throwing all the silverware in one box is a bad idea, wrapping each piece of silverware separately in foil/flannel/parchment and placing it side by side is a good idea.

TIP : Place an activated carbon tablet in the place where silver objects are located. It absorbs water well, thereby maintaining an optimal level of humidity.

An example of proper silverware storage

Reason No. 3 - improper washing

• Silverware should not be washed in the dishwasher. Otherwise, a coating will form on the dishes.
• Silverware should be washed and dried immediately after use. You cannot leave silverware in the evening after guests and wash it in the morning.

Leftover food will oxidize and leave dark spots.

• After you have washed your silverware, you must wipe it dry. And only then put it in the case.

Silverware with stains from the dishwasher

Reason No. 4 - sulfur-containing products

Silver oxidizes and darkens from sulfur-containing products: eggs, onions, fish, milk, mayonnaise. As for silverware, contact cannot be avoided. But it is better not to use a silver tray for herring under a fur coat.

Tarnished silver teaspoons

How to quickly get rid of dark deposits on silver spoons

Stores sell specialized products that fight blackness and plaque in a matter of seconds:

Special wet wipes impregnated with finely dispersed substances. You just need to wipe all the spoons with them. After one wipe, the devices acquire their original shine. One napkin can wipe 15 spoons.

Silver cleaners. Jewelry stores sell special products such as “Jeveler”. Pour the liquid into any container, place spoons, hold for 5 seconds. Remove and wipe dry with a soft cloth.