"Evgenia, you don't even have a clue how"clean silver, let alone keep the house clean." (from the novel by Kathryn Stockett "The Help") Do you have any idea about this? Of course, the need to clean silverware does not arise for every modern housewife due to the lack of silver itself. We have somehow already gotten used to doing without silver dishes and cutlery. Although, in some houses there are silver spoons and silver coffee pots that were either received as a gift or inherited, But most of us think about how to clean silver at home when silver jewelry loses its color and shine. After all, silver, unlike gold, tends to darken and fade. Silver darkens for various reasons. If gold jewelry is not susceptible to substances contained in decorative and hygienic cosmetics, then silver rings, chains and earrings actively react to them. Silver can also darken from improper storage, moisture, contact with the body. In any case, whether it is silverware or jewelry, it needs to be cleaned the same way. However, unlike gold, this metal does not react painlessly to all products. So, what products and methods are suitable for cleaning silver at home? Let's figure it out.
Ammonia
Perhaps ammonia can be called the mosteffective means for cleaning silver at home. However, not everyone knows that ammonia should be used very carefully for jewelry with stones. And for gold-plated silver and jewelry with pearls, it is generally contraindicated. Different methods are used to clean silver with ammonia.
Lemon acid
You can clean silver jewelry with stonescitric acid. To do this, dilute one hundred grams of acid (in powder) with two glasses of water, and then place the container with the solution in a water bath. Place your silver jewelry in the container with the solution and boil for twenty to thirty minutes. Then rinse them in clean warm water. If you do not risk boiling your jewelry, then do the following. Squeeze the juice of a fresh lemon, strain it and pour it into a glass or cup. Then place rings, earrings and (or) chains in the lemon juice and leave for a while. As soon as the silver returns to its original color, take out the jewelry and rinse in warm water.
Baking soda and salt
Perhaps one of the most accessible means forcleaning silver - baking soda or salt. To clean silver with soda, pour two glasses of water into a metal (not aluminum!) mug and dissolve two tablespoons of soda in it. Stir and put on the fire. When the soda solution boils, first lower a piece of cling film into it, and then the item that needs cleaning. Count to ten and take the silver out of the solution. Rinse it and wipe dry. Just do not rub silver items with soda powder. Soda powder is an abrasive, so you will, of course, remove the dark coating, but you will damage the item by scratching it. However, for cutlery without a lot of patterns, you can use this method. Pour soda into a saucer, add a little water so that the soda does not dissolve, but turns into a liquid gruel. Now dip a rag into this gruel and gently wipe the item, cleaning it from the dark coating. If you decide to try cleaning your silver items with salt, make a salt solution: a teaspoon of salt per incomplete glass of water. Then soak the silver in it and leave for two to three hours. After that, boil the items in the same solution for ten to fifteen minutes, then rinse and wipe.
Hydrogen peroxide
Some housewives, by analogy with gold cleaninghydrogen peroxide, they also try to clean silver with peroxide. However, when cleaning silverware and silver jewelry with hydrogen peroxide, you need to be careful. The fact is that hydrogen peroxide has an exclusively positive effect on silver, restoring shine and removing dark plaque. But other metals (except gold) can oxidize when in contact with hydrogen peroxide. And silver items are made not from pure silver, but from its alloys with other metals. Therefore, before cleaning silver with hydrogen peroxide, conduct a preliminary test. If gold jewelry is perfectly cleaned by placing it in a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide for some time, then for silver jewelry and silverware this method can be destructive. So feel free to classify this product as a chemical compound harmful to silver and refuse to clean your silver jewelry with hydrogen peroxide. By the way, some recipes for cleaning silver recommend using ammonia in combination with hydrogen peroxide. This supposedly enhances the effect. This may be true. However, without knowing how your silver will behave under the influence of hydrogen peroxide, it is still not worth taking risks.
Other means
In addition to the listed available means forcleaning silver, there are products that were used long before the appearance of ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, citric acid or soda in the home arsenal. And there are also modern, but very unexpected products.
- Garlic husks
To do this, you need to prepare a concentrated decoction of garlic peel and boil the silver items in it. The boiling time will depend on the degree of darkening and tarnishing of the silver items.
- Potato broth
Boil one or more peeledpotatoes. Remove the potatoes and dip the silver items into the resulting broth and leave for ten to fifteen minutes. Then rinse and wipe dry.
- Eggshell
To use this product you will needan aluminum saucepan or mug. Pour water into it, add a tablespoon of salt, the shells of two raw eggs (per liter of water) and put it on the fire. While the water is boiling, rinse the silver items in hot water, and then lower them into boiling water with salt and eggshells. Count to twenty and take them out. Rinse and wipe with a soft cloth (preferably woolen).
- Vinegar
Try cleaning silver with vinegar.To do this, take regular table vinegar (6%), dilute it with water and soak a cloth in this solution. Then simply wipe the silver thoroughly, rinse it and wipe dry. Vinegar perfectly cleans silver from organic contaminants and mold. So you can use it not for radical cleaning, but for preventive care.
- Coca Cola
That this popular carbonated drinkdoes not bring any benefit to the body (and even the opposite!) a lot has already been said. And some housewives successfully clean kettles from scale and silver from dark plaque with cola. If you believe their experience, then boiling silver items in this drink returns their color and shine in five minutes. However, you should not experiment with this product, as well as with hydrogen peroxide.
- Lipstick
Take an old toothbrush and apply ita layer of lipstick and carefully polish the silver item. Although this product cannot always cope with the dark coating, it is quite possible to restore the shine to silver with its help. By the way, you can also clean silver at home with professional products. If you buy such a special product in a jewelry store, you will save yourself from the troublesome cleaning with ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, soda, etc. for a long time. Firstly, you will be able to safely and easily clean both silverware and jewelry with stones, and secondly, you will protect the products from rapid oxidation. According to manufacturers, products for cleaning silver jewelry form a protective layer on them. However, you can always make sure of this by using such products in practice. Good luck! We recommend reading:
