How To Clean Silver Jewellery At Home
#3 Might Surprise You!
Within this article are multiple steps scientifically and anecdotally seen to remove this tarnish and prevent any tarnish on your items, as well as the best ways to easily clean and get your silver back to its original shiny glory.
We believe silver is an absolutely beautiful material. It sparkles, it shines, it's malleable and can be used for just about anything. You are here because you too believe that, and you want to keep your precious sterling silver jewellery in the best condition you can.
It has always been a hard nut to crack to get the knowledge needed to keep your sterling silver at all times clean, shiny, and free from "Tarnish".Sterling Silver is technically an alloy, containing at minimum 92.5% pure silver with the other 7.5% consisting of other materials often copper. Due to this, there is always a chance of your sterling silver jewellery tarnishing as time goes on, whether or not the jewellery is being worn or stored somewhere.
What Is Tarnish?
- Tarnish is a thin layer of corrosion on your jewellery that makes it lose much of the shine - much like Rust on Iron - resulting in the formation of a dark coating making it undesirable to look at and giving this sort of dirty look to it. Tarnish occurs as a chemical reaction with the hydrogen and sulfur available in the air.
- Many people think that the tarnish occurring on Silver is caused by oxidation, however, this is false because silver does not react to water or oxygen at normal temperatures. On the other hands, such statements do have a blanket of truth to them because the 7.5% of copper that Sterling Silver is alloyed with does indeed react with oxygen.
- Moreover, the natural alkaline levels of your skin can react with the silver jewellery. Your skin has sulphur and amino acids on it that naturally occur from perspiration which can cause bad quality silver items to discolour. Often, fake silver will leave a green tint on you - this is a sign of fake sterling silver, having more than 7.5% copper. Cleaning the jewellery often and sticking to reliable merchants will give you a higher chance of not encountering this discolouration.
Preventing Tarnishing
Would you like to know the secret to prevent tarnish on your sterling silver jewellery? Here are some solutions and steps for you to save the silver from any chemical reactions and keep the upper layers as intact as possible.
Store Your Silver In As Airtight Of A Place As You Can
As previously mentioned, the copper part of sterling silver is what causes the tarnish to form due to oxidation. One of the biggest ways to mitigate the amount of oxidation affecting it is by storing your jewellery in an air-restricted space to limit the oxygen available. An easy way to do this is by using a jewellery box, which although not completely airtight will still make a difference than just leaving your jewellery out in the open. It slows down the process.
Chalk Or Silica Gel Packets
When storing your jewellery, put some chalk into the box. Any type of chalk should do. What this does is it absorbs the moisture from the air, much like those Silica Gel packets that you sometimes get when you purchase items. In fact, if you have any Silica Gel packets laying around then you can put 1 in the box instead of chalk and it will make a big difference to absorb moisture and prevent tarnish.
Conditioner
Place a small amount of hair conditioner on the silver and rub it in with your fingers or using a soft cloth. Enough to coat the entire item, yet not too much so as to leave large blobs. This will create a protective layer over it, whilst at the same time polishing it to get that beautiful shine.
Avoiding Chlorine, Bleach, And Ammonia
Taking off your jewellery before swimming in chlorinated pools will go a huge way towards taking care of it. The chlorine is harmful to the silver and will fade it away, much like bleach or ammonia containing products - therefore avoid cleaning it using household bleach or anything with ammonia - those are just too strong for the material to handle.
Cleaning
Just like your own body, you must make an effort to regularly clean the jewellery even if it may not look dirty to the naked eye. Having a regular cleaning schedule such as every month or week depending on how often you wear it will protect and prolong the signature shine of silver jewellery.
8 Best Ways To Clean Sterling Silver Jewellery At Home
1) Baking Soda & Aluminium Foil
The most effective method to clean sterling silver jewellery from home products to remove that nasty tarnish and restore the shine is baking soda and aluminium foil.
- For maximum results, grab a container large enough for your jewellery to fit into and be fully submerged.
- Line the insides of the container with aluminium foil shiny side up.
- Instantly place your jewellery into the container, ensuring that at all times at least 1 point of the jewellery is touching the aluminium foil. This is absolutely necessary for the cleaning process.
- Leave your jewellery in the solution for about 5-7 minutes, leaving it in for up to 10 minutes if the tarnishing is really bad.
- Carefully remove your jewellery using a utensil such as a spoon or fork so as to not be harmed by the still-hot water, and quickly rinse the item under cold water.
Enjoy! If this method does not work, try each of our below methods until one works.
2) Toothpaste
Perhaps the easiest method to cleaning silver jewellery may not be a surprise considering the number of DIY guides on cleaning anything it is used in. That's right, toothpaste.
Take a small amount of toothpaste onto your finger or a sponge, and rub it gently into the tarnished areas on your jewellery for 60 seconds.
Proceed to rinse it in warm water and wipe with a dry cloth. Repeat up to 3 times to see effective results each time, else try one of the other methods.
3) Ketchup
Another effective yet not immediately obvious way to clean your sterling silver jewellery is using the average household ketchup we all have.
Apply an appropriate amount of the common condiment onto a paper towel according to how much silver you have to cover, and gently rub this onto the item.
If you do not see results instantly, let the ketchup sit on the item for about 15 minutes, then thoroughly rub using a paper towel or any cloth and rinse in hot water.
You can also use a toothbrush to clean any corners or areas that a paper towel may not be able to reach well.
4) Window Cleaner
Whilst cleaning your windows, it can be a good idea to set aside a few minutes to apply the window cleaner to your silver jewellery. Get multiple advantages from one product, hit two birds with one stone.
Spray the window cleaner onto a rag or toothbrush - or directly onto the areas you wish to clean, and gently scrub the tarnished areas on your jewellery.
5) Cornstarch
Make a paste using your average household cornstarch and apply it to the silver jewellery using a damp cloth.
Wait for the applied paste to dry, and rub it with an abrasive medium such as a rougher towel or the rough side of a kitchen sponge.
DO NOT USE ANYTHING HIGHLY ABRASIVE LIKE SANDPAPER OR STEEL WOOL.
6) Cream Of Tartar
If you do not have cornstarch available, cream of tartar works in the same way.
Make a paste of it, apply to the tarnished silver jewellery using a damp towel, and wait for it to dry.
Once dry, rub using a mildly abrasive medium such as the rough end of a sponge or a rough towel.
DO NOT USE ANYTHING HIGHLY ABRASIVE LIKE SANDPAPER OR STEEL WOOL.
7) Lemon & Salt Bath
Squeeze a lemon into a bowl or glass with 3 tablespoons of table salt.
Put the tarnished silver jewellery into the container and submerge it with hot water for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, take it out and rub the affected areas with a soft cloth to get quick effective results with a simple technique.
8) Cola Bath
Remember how as a child you read or heard about how placing pennies into a glass filled with cola and letting it sit overnight makes them all shiny and clean? Well, pennies are made with copper, and sterling silver has copper!
That's right, just place your jewellery into a glass or any container to fully submerge it in cola, and let it sit overnight. Wash it after taking it out and it will be bright and shiny just like new!