Easy Way to Clean Silver Jewelry
January 26, 2012 by Stephanie
I’m not that much of a girly girl, but am realizing that I can get away with wearing the same plain shirt and jeans quite often if I switch up my jewelry. Recently, my friend Jennifer’s (yes, I realize ALL my friends are named Jennifer..) mom started selling jewelry, which means I’ve started to buy more pieces.
I love my new jewelry, but find that real silver tarnishes much too quick for my liking, and I stop wearing it completely after a few months. After a bit of googling, I discovered the quickest and easiest way to wash it all at once to remove the tarnish: a salt water bath with aluminum foil. The hot water and salt loosens the dirt and grime, while the aluminum foil attracts the tarnish (for the super-geeky, this is an ion exchange), and it then wipes away from the jewelry (or silver pieces) easily with a soft towel.
This wiki post intrigued me, but it was the testimonials from this message board that won me over.
I would not use this method to clean jewelry with precious stones. All the stones I dropped in the solution were made from glass.
The Ingredients.
tarnished silver jewelry, silver pieces (flatware, etc) (I also threw in a hammered copper pendant, which cleaned beautifully)
aluminum foil
1 tablespoon table salt
hot water
glass container or jar
The Directions.
Fill a glass jar or container with hot water, and stir in a tablespoon of table salt. Make sure the salt has dissolved completely, and throw in a few (I did three) 1-inch aluminum foil strips. Add jewelry. Let soak for a few hours, stirring every so often to remove dirt (the water will get brownish in color).
Dry jewelry completely with a soft towel and store in a silver cloth or tarnish-free tissue paper to keep this from happening over and over and over and over and over again. Sigh.
The Verdict.
This worked much better than I expected it to– the dirt and tarnish just wiped away with the towel. I found some of my really badly tarnished chains needed to soak longer, but they still were ready to go in a few hours. I only wish I was gutsy enough to tie the crockpot in with this one…
I also have a very easy way to clean silver. It is almost the same as this method but use baking soda and hot water. Basically the method is the same. I did this to clean a very old, very tarnished – almost black! – teapot that had all kinds of nooks and crannies on it due to the intricate pattern. I placed it in a bucket and kept at it until it was super shiney! So much nicer than using the polish creams and less elbow grease too!
Love the salt idea, will try that next time.
Hey!
Thanks for the info… I was wondering if you would you clean silver with turquoise or lapis with this method ?
Thanks
Hi Rena,
I’m going to say no because I don’t know, and I’d hate to see anything accidentally damaged. I’m sorry for not being of more help!
Stupid question…are we talking sterling silver? If so, this would be great. Also, no salt in te hoyse but sea salt?
Hi Cathy, my silver was sterling silver. I think with the larger granules of salt you just need it to dissolve completely. Maybe use super hot water to get it to dissipate, then add jewelry after it cools?