Tarnished Sterling - what do I tumble with?

[Caroline Loves Glass]

Hi Everyone,

Well, I have gotten so tired of looking at my tarnished sterling silver bracelets that I broke down and bought a tumbler today. But what do I put into the tumbler with my beads and the silver findings?

Advice would be musch appreciated!!

Caroline

[PaulaD]

stainless steel shot.

[zanotti]

Some friends were visiting me last week, had been reading some novel for a book club, some old lady in the story was cleaning her sterling silver with this technique: she used 1 tablespoon of baking soda, dissolved it in about 6 inches of water in a stainless steel pan, boiled it, put in a piece of aluminum foil...turned it down to a simmer, then placed her silver items on the foil...for just seconds. You can see the tarnish bubble and adhere to the foil! When the foil is tarnished & the water scummy, start over. I cleaned some 30 year old pairs of earrings and you can see all the detail in the etching, etc in them...A word of caution, however. I do believe I ruined my Farberware pan, it has nasty looking deposits, so use an old pan! And I imagine the steam/ vapors that come off are not healthy to inhale...silver is a heavy metal...so ventilation is important! I am sure some chemists out there can tell us WHY this works...I just know that my silver jewelry sparkles as much as it did the day I bought it, and the collection goes back 37 years! I lifted items off the foil with metal tongs, did earrings in pairs so that they would get equal amounts of cleaning/ shininess. worked great on necklaces/ chains that have all those crevices that you can never clean with a silver cleaning cloth.I don't recommend it for jewelry with stones...some things with bevel settings came loose, probably from the metal expanding due to the heat?? And probably not good for opals etc to be submerged in hot water, I don't know, I'm a newbie lampworker...am sure somebody out there can advise us.

[Angie09]

A squirt of Dawn dish soap in the water of the tumbler works better than anything else I have found.

[Carolyn M]

Similar to Zanotti, I line a small bowl with aluminum foil, put is some baking soda, boils some water, pour into bowl, add silver items and pull out after a minute or so. The 'tarnish' transfers to the foil and forms some sulphur compound

[RSimmons]

The tarnish on your silver is mostly silver sulfide. Under the correct conditions the sulfur will be more strongly attracted to aluminum than to silver. By mixing baking soda (and often a pinch of salt) in very hot water you are setting up electrochemical conditions that favor the binding of sulfur to aluminum over binding to silver. With heavily tarnished items you can often smell sulfur in the air when you do this. The silver does not vaporize, so there is no risk of heavy metal exposure. I use a Pyrex baking dish lined with aluminum foil and pour boiled water into it. I wouldn't recommend using any metal pans that you want to cook with.

A word of caution is needed here. Don't do this with jewelry that includes opals, pearls or emeralds.. Opals and emeralds make crack and pearls would just turn ugly and be ruined. Beware of soft glass jewelry as well as you might get thermal shock cracking.

Robert

[Caroline Loves Glass]

I had never heard of the other way to remove tarnish! Outstanding....I will give it a try. Thanks!

[Starrr]

Another tip to add to the rest..... I would do this in a sink because the soda can bubble when you pour in the boiling water.

[Carolyn M]

It really is an awesome way to clean silver chains! I do about 10 at a time.

[zanotti]

Robert!! Thanks so much for your info...I KNEW somebody on LE would chime in and educate me. Wish I had known before I ruined my Farberware stainless steel pan! Oh well. Glad to know the fumes are not filled with heavy metals! I'd also caution against turquoise...kind of bleached some out...

[j2canoe]

This is really cool advice!!! I will have to try this - I have a quick tip for just a piece or two if you don't have time to clean with the methods below....Colgate Total toothpaste - paste, not the gel, will quickly remove tarnish as well. Just put a little on your fingers, rub jewelry well (you will see the tarnish come off) and rinse well under running warm water. I clean my earrings, necklaces, bracelets etc this way as I'm getting ready for work in the morning - added plus is you don't have to be careful about what stones or glass you might have in the pieces.....:)

[TinaJ]

When using the soda/salt and foil method be sure to rinse the pieces very well. I did several pieces before a show then just put the unsold earrings on a shelf between shows. When I opened my box to check on items before my next show (months later) they looked like they had a powder (I'm guessing the soda/salt?) all over them and they looked awful.

Now I just use my tumbler (glass beads, crystals and all...I don't use stones or pearls so that isn't an issue), putting in one earring of each pair at a time into the tumbler (so that I can keep the earrings with the proper inventory number on the earring card) and tumble for 30 minutes to an hour. It is much easier than the other method and the results are much better in the long run.

Good luck!
Tina

[queenofswords]

Using the aluminum foil technique is a form of electroplating. If you use tap water that has any sort of metal content it could attach to the silver and eventually ruin the look of the silver. If you must do it this way use purified water. My friend is a conservator at at museum. I told her about this and I thought she was going to pass out, but then the pieces she works on are a lot older and more valuable. Here is a link http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research/pdfs/cnsv-silver.pdf It is a good read on silver and what to do depending on degree of tarnish.

[patienthand]

HInt.. when you buy your steel shot, get it with multiple shapes and sizes. it helps to get in all the nooks and crannies of things. and I also use a few drops of dawn dish soap in with my tumbler water. When I make my own head pins I tumble them as well.

Candice

[Ro]

i do the aluminum method but i used distilled water. just be careful your pieces dry before putting them away. i made that mistake once. i didnt know silver can rust.
ro

[rainygrrl]

Wow--lots of good info in this thread and the link posted earlier.

Here is a link http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research/pdfs/cnsv-silver.pdf It is a good read on silver and what to do depending on degree of tarnish.

Which of the methods would be best for delicate silver jewelry with turquoise or pearls? A friend of mine has given me some very cool handmade necklaces over the years, but some are pretty tarnished now. Would love to see them shine again... TIA!

[queenofswords]

You have to be very careful with gems. you can destroy pearls by putting them in anything chemical, same as opals. They are very soft. Not sure about turquoise. Whenever a gemstone is involved I would check with a gemologist. When in doubt, soap, water and a soft cloth.

[cc2]

I also tumble in the rock tumbler with mixed stainless steel shot I purchased from Rio Grande. http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea/ProductPage.aspx?assetname=339097&page=GRID&free_text%7c1267190045631=stainless+steel+shot

I put warm water in the tumbler, my jewelry with lampwork, sterling silver and crystals. Then a few drops of Super Sunsheen Burnishing compound from RioGrande. http://www.riogrande.com/MemberArea/ProductPage.aspx?assetname=339323&page=GRID&free_text%7c1267189984820=sunsheen

I only tumble for 30 min. to 1 hour. It works like a charm. I pour all of the water thru a large strainer.

195639

It allows me to rinse the jewelry and the stainless steel shot. I then pour them all on a large fluffly kitchen towel and blow it all dry with a blow dryer. I sort the jewelry from the shot and am ready to go again. I store the shot inside the rock tumbler in the original bag that it came with from Rio Grande. When I am ready to do this again everything is right there ready.

[Cathy at the Beach]

I have to add that I leave my shot in the tumbler covered with water when not in use. I use my tumbler almost every day so there is no way I could spend the time drying it.
I could certainly do that if I was only going to use it once a week or so though! :)

[bousky]

I love the info in this thread. Now marked for later........

[rainygrrl]

Thanks queen! Good thoughts!!