Tarnished silver can really be very disappointing especially when it comes to ancestral silver or the usual kitchen silverware. Polishing silver is the only way to get the shine back as new. But there’s no way you can do the polishing easily at home. Find out one easy way you can make sterling silver shine without many efforts!
How does silver lose its original shine?
Silver tarnish actually happens when the air interacts with the silver and turns its outer layer into silver sulfide, which is black in color.
Possible Solutions
If the time for you isn’t an issue, you can take some silver polish and combine it with a lot of elbow grease and polish off the layer of silver sulfide from the utensil.
But for those with a busy lifestyle, let science do the magic! Mostly when we talk about science and magic in cleaning, baking soda is the most prominent method all over the web. If you didn’t know, baking soda has brilliant cleaning properties along with many other uses. You could read this article to know many uses of the kitchen friendly ingredient- bicarb. Back to the topic, follow these simple steps to cleaning silver with foil and baking soda.
Step 1
Fill a big enough pot with 3-4 cup water and turn the stove onto high heat, so that the water gets boiled thoroughly.
Step 2
Rip a piece of aluminum foil, crumble it into a loose ball and toss it into the boiling water without turning off the stove. Cleaning silver with foil is a very easy way to get rid of silver sulfide from your silver pieces.
Step 3
Once the water comes to a boil, add a cup of baking soda and turn the flame low. Make sure you add 1 tbsp baking soda at a time.
Step 4
Now is the time when you can dunk your defamed silver (one at a time) to the pot. Ensure that your silverware is in direct contact with the loose aluminum foil ball. If the silver piece isn’t touching the foil, this trick is sure to fail.
Tip: If your silver has a thick coat of tarnish, you will have to leave it for a few minutes. Whereas, for light tarnish, a quick dip will work.
Safety First: Silver is a great heat conductor, so be careful and use gloves to remove your silver pieces from the pot.
Try this method of cleaning silver with foil and baking soda to get the original shine of your silverware back in less time with least efforts.
