Pretty much anything made of silver will darken and tarnish over time, so I’ve found a great way to clean silver jewellery that is quick, effective, and inexpensive. I’ve been using this method for years, but prior to this I used to buy commercial cleaning solutions made of harsh corrosive chemicals that were potentially stripping away the silver. Not anymore! Instead, you too may discover that you have everything you need in your own kitchen to start cleaning gently.
This bracelet has so much potential! Made of silver American dimes, I will clean only one half of it for comparison.
You will need:
1. A container that can withstand hot water
2. water – warm or hot water works best because the heat increases the rate of reaction
3. salt – a teaspoon will do. No exact amount required
4. baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) – a teaspoon will do. No exact amount required
5. aluminum foil
Spoons of salt and baking soda shown here.
Line the container with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Sprinkle the salt and baking soda onto the foil.
Add enough water to dissolve the components and cover the jewellery.
Submerge the tarnished silver into the solution and ensure that it comes into direct contact with the aluminum foil. The silver has to touch the aluminum in order for this to work. Within seconds you will see your jewellery brighten, but do let it sit for a few minutes to get a good clean. Without going into too much detail, tarnish occurs when silver combines with sulfur in the atmosphere and forms silver sulfide. In this method essentially an electrochemical reaction is taking place whereby the solution is carrying and transferring the sulfur from the silver sulfide to the aluminum via a salt bridge, thereby forming aluminum sulfide instead. The aluminum sulfide then adheres to the aluminum foil, or may form little flakes that look like rice paper.
Cleaning the rest of my jewellery: if you look closely, you will notice that the aluminum foil looks darkened in certain areas (this is aluminum sulfide).
Complete contrast: the top three coins didn’t come into contact with the solution nor aluminum foil, whereas the bottom three were cleaned.
Like night and day: I held onto the bracelet in the middle, so the right side was dipped whereas the left side was not.
Give this a try! It’s also a great experiment for the kids. 🙂
