Silver items can be found in any home.
It can be cutlery, souvenirs or jewelry.
Over time, these things dear to the heart become covered with a dark coating (patina).
Patina covers silverware by oxidizing copper, which is often found in the alloy.
How to clean silver at home: the necessary tools and devices
To effectively clean silver at home, you need to purchase some products. Ideally, it is better to use special cosmetic products to care for jewelry.
The main advantage of special products for precious metals is that after application they continue to repel dirt for some time and protect against oxidation.
They can be bought in the department with household goods or in jewelry stores.
If there is no desire to spend money, then ordinary toilet or laundry soap and soft cloth will come in handy.
How to clean silver at home: cutlery and utensils
Cutlery can be most effectively cleaned with special detergents for silver and gold products. Moreover, large items (trays, teapots, candlesticks) should be treated with sprays, and forks, spoons and knives with pasty substances. Blackened areas and enamel must be protected from contact with cleaner.
If in a short time it is required to remove dark plaque and dirt from a large amount of utensils, then folk methods will be quite useful.
This method should be used if silver is not blackened. Cook potatoes in a pan, after the potatoes are boiled, do not pour out the water. The tubers need to be pulled out, and lay the foil on the bottom of the container. Then we put dirty products in the broth and bring to a boil. After the broth boils, reduce the heat and leave it on the stove for another 15 minutes. It is necessary to allow the liquid to cool and only then pour. Rinse boiled appliances with cold water, wipe with a soft, dry cloth.
You can also use a wonderful tool - ordinary baking soda. We take a container in which all home silver that needs to be cleaned will fit, lay aluminum foil on the bottom. How many liters of water do you plan to use, how many tablespoons of soda you need to pour on the foil. Then we pour boiling water, and in the hot water after the complete dissolution of the soda we lower the silver items. When the water has cooled, remove the silver from the solution, wash the instruments with soap, rinse in running cold water and wipe dry.
How to clean silver at home: jewelry
The most convenient and quick way to remove patina and dirt from jewelry is to wipe the finished cloth with a solution. They are universal, and sometimes differ in purpose. Some are made for gold, while others are for silver. Special liquids and napkins can be used to clean any silver with stones of various kinds.
In emergency cases with dirty and not very sophisticated decorations, you can do with toothpaste and a brush. This method is convenient in that everyone has a toothpaste, like an old toothbrush.
You can try to clean a smooth ring or any other simple-shaped silver product with a regular stationery eraser. I have not tried this method before, and in vain. The other day I was sitting, watching a series and simultaneously rubbing a small ring with rubbing rubber. What is surprising, it turns out this method works! But it is easy to guess that a decoration with patterns or large, massive products with drawings will not be completely clean, no matter how many.
If the decoration is inlaid with stones, then it is effective to use 10% percent ammonia, which can be bought at any pharmacy. The product to be cleaned is lowered for a quarter of an hour. We take out the jewelry and determine the degree of purity, if it did not satisfy you, you can re-leave it on soaking for another 15 minutes. After you get the silver, do not forget to rinse in clean water and wipe dry. Another type of silver cleaning with ammonia does not require immersion in jewelry. You can just take a piece of cloth and moisten it with ammonia. This cloth is required to wipe the silver products to shine.
I will present you a recipe for a more aggressive cleaning solution containing ammonia. It takes about 200 ml of water, a teaspoon of ammonia, also half a teaspoon of liquid toilet soap and hydrogen peroxide. All these ingredients are thoroughly mixed and the dirty decorations are dipped in the resulting solution. From time to time, silverware needs to be removed and cleanliness evaluated. If the result you are satisfied with, rinse with clean clothes and wipe.
Table vinegar is also one of the homemakers ’favorite silver cleaning products. In general, it is very often used for other purposes, and very successfully. To remove dirt and patina from silver jewelry, a small amount of vinegar must be heated to 40-60C on the stove. After removing the dishes with vinegar from the tile, lower the darkened product into it for 15-20 minutes. If the jewelry is not sufficiently cleaned, you can return it back to vinegar. Do not forget to rinse clean items with clean water after the procedure and wipe them dry.
Citric acid helps to get rid of dark plaque on silver. Take an enameled bowl or pan and pour water into it. Add citric acid in powder form. Place the dish with the solution on the stove and wait until it boils. While the water begins to boil, you need to string rings, earrings, pendants that you are going to wash from contaminants onto the copper wire. Jewelery together with the wire should be lowered into a boiling liquid and kept in it until the dirt comes off. Usually, it takes 20-30 minutes before complete cleansing.
At worst, you can turn to salt for help. It cannot be that you did not have it. For every 200 ml of water, pour a teaspoon of ordinary salt and mix until it is completely dissolved. Place the saline dishes on the stove. When the water boils, put the silver jewelry in the container for 15-30 minutes. After such a procedure, your silver should sparkle like new.
Salt can be used as one of the ingredients to obtain a solution that perfectly cleans silver at home. To do this, you will need aluminum utensils (a pan or a large deep bowl), water, any liquid detergent for dishes, baking soda and ordinary table salt. For about 1 liter of water, take 1 tablespoon of liquid detergent, add 1 tablespoon of table salt and baking soda there. It is necessary to bring the solution to a boil, in this case an abundant foam can form, then it is necessary to reduce the power of the fire and put the contaminated silver jewelry into the boiling liquid. Simmer for 15-30 minutes. Do not cover the container and occasionally check the boiling liquid.
A method of purifying silver at home with toothpowder or soda has long been known. First of all, we take powder (more) and water (much less). The consistency of the prepared cleaning agent should be mushy. You can rub with soda or tooth powder with your bare hands or a rag. If some areas are not cleaned, then take a brush.
On the Internet you can find different folk ways to cleanse silver from patina. For example, using chicken eggs. After boiling the eggs, you just need to lower the silver items into the remaining water and after some time take them out. As planned, the dirt should be removed. In fact, this turned out to be not a particularly effective way, but maybe I was doing something wrong.
How to clean silver at home and not ruin it
If the silver product has come into contact with a wet surface or wet skin, immediately wipe it thoroughly with a dry, clean cloth.
When you are doing housework, gardening and gardening, always remove silver jewelry. This simple rule will allow for a long time to maintain the purity and brilliance of rings and bracelets.
Before carrying out cosmetic procedures or applying skin products, do not forget to remove all jewelry made of precious metals. Creams with sulfur content contribute to the oxidation of silver and the loss of its beautiful appearance.
Store products that you do not often use in a dry place. It is necessary that various silver items do not contact each other. Therefore, take any foil or ordinary cling film, and individually wrap decorations or cutlery in them.
Products with pearls are contraindicated to clean with ammonia.
Practice has shown that toothpowder and soda, when not fully dissolved, scratch the surface of silver. The resulting small scratches and cracks accumulate dirt inside, which will be very difficult to clean. Ammonia, toothpaste and vinegar also do not bring silver products good. It is better to use these substances for their intended purpose, otherwise you can achieve the loss of presentation of your favorite jewelry and family items.
Popular wisdom is known to have been tested by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, but nowadays we know that eggs contain sulfur, so it’s impossible to clean silver at home using eggshells.
In order to be calm about your favorite silver jewelry, it is better to entrust them with professional tools, dear to the heart dishes and coins.
