How to clean silver

In any apartment there are items made of silver. This includes festive cutlery, interior decorations or women's jewelry. Often housewives notice that after a short period after purchase? silver objects become dark, plaque appears on them. So it's time to clean up.

How to clean silver at home

Silver items darken for a variety of reasons. These include the following:

• Moisture - Damp air and wet skin will cause silver to darken.
• Silver can become dark due to the individual characteristics of the host organism.
• Sulfur, which is part of cosmetics. When combined with sulfur, silver produces a dark precipitate.

There are several methods you can use to clean silver jewelry, cutlery, or other items. To start, the product needs to be washed with warm water and some kind of detergent. You can use regular laundry soap, liquid used to wash dishes, or ordinary shampoo... During washing, dirt and grease deposits are removed from the entire surface of the product. Arm yourself with an old toothbrush or soft cloth to clean up the hard-to-reach areas. After washing, rinse the items well in clean water.

Then use one of these techniques:

• For a more thorough cleaning after washing, dip the items in regular tooth powder and rub with a fluffy cloth.
• Make a gruel from tooth powder and ammonia, apply it over the silver and let it dry. Then polish the item with a dry cloth.
• Decorations with large contamination, soak in a solution of ammonia or in undiluted ammonia. If you decide to make a solution, then take 1 share of ammonia and 10 shares of water. Place the items in this solution for about 1 hour. For pure ammonia, the soaking time should not exceed a quarter of an hour. After cleaning? the item must be rinsed with plain water and dried.

How to clean silver from blackness

Lemon acid and a piece of copper will help restore shine to silver jewelry. Dissolve 100 g of lemon acid in half a liter of water. Put this composition on fire and throw a piece of copper into it. In this capacity, you can take ordinary copper wire. Wait for the composition to boil and lower the silver things there for a quarter of an hour. After boiling, rinse with water and buff with a soft cloth.

To eliminate persistent stains use this method: take 10 g of salt, dishwashing liquid and soda each, mix it all with half a liter of water and pour into an aluminum container. Put the saucepan on the fire and dip the silver in there. Boil everything for half an hour.

How to clean silver with stones

If your jewelry contains inserts with semi-precious stones, then to clean them you need to know the density of the stone. The cleaning method will depend on this.

High-density stones such as emeralds, aquamarines or sapphires are cleaned with washing powder or shampoo. Previously, these funds must be diluted in hot water, and use an unnecessary toothbrush for cleaning.

To clean jewelry with malachite, moonstone or turquoise, laundry soap is used instead of washing powder. Otherwise, the principle of operation is the same.

If the piece of jewelry contains glass or enamel inserts, use a mixture of tooth powder and a few drops of ammonia to clean them. Use a piece of cotton instead of a toothbrush, and do not use too hot water - the inserts may crack.

For items with organic inserts such as pearls, coral or amber, use only a solution of laundry soap and a soft cloth.

How to clean gold plated silver

Methods for refining gold or silver are not recommended for contaminated gilded silver. If there is no obvious contamination, then it is quite enough to polish the item by taking a piece of suede. You can remove plaque from darkened gilding with a sponge moistened with rubbing alcohol or turpentine.

Regular beer can help fight stubborn stains. Put the gilded silver in it for half an hour and then wash in warm water, pat dry and shine with a piece of suede.