# Cleaning silver



## patnor1011 (Jul 14, 2019)

I need to pick your brain on this one. 
I actually researched this topic but I am quite confused as I came across the advice to use pretty much everything from toothpaste, baking soda, alcohol.... you name it.

I come to posession of some very nice item - it is a sort of a family heirloom supposed to be nearly 100 years old. It is a centerpiece bowl sort of a thing. 800 silver. 
According to my father "someone" coated it with clear varnish some 30-40 years ago to prevent silver from tarnishing but obviously it did not help as varnish degraded and gave it sort of a yellowish hue on places. 
I intend to clean it I just do not know what to start with and what may be the best choice to use to make it all nice silvery shining again. 
Can someone help me with this?


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## patnor1011 (Jul 14, 2019)

2 more


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## nickvc (Jul 14, 2019)

If it’s an old varnish try alcohol or acetone to remove it, once the varnish has gone get a large container add some aluminum foil and place in the bottom stand your item on it cover with hot water and add bicarbonate of soda that will convert any silver oxide back to silver then polish carefully with a silver polish to get it back to bright silver.


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## Shark (Jul 14, 2019)

Sorry I can't help, but that is a beautiful piece.


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## anachronism (Jul 14, 2019)

nickvc said:


> If it’s an old varnish try alcohol or acetone to remove it, once the varnish has gone get a large container add some aluminum foil and place in the bottom stand your item on it cover with hot water and add bicarbonate of soda that will convert any silver oxide back to silver then polish carefully with a silver polish to get it back to bright silver.




Acetone for me mate.


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## kurtak (Jul 15, 2019)

Pat

For removing the varnish - as a master cabinet builder - I would recommend lacquer thinner - it will cut (dissolve) the varnish better then acetone - alcohol will likely just make it turn cloudy but not really cut it

after that - as Nick said

Kurt


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## Lou (Jul 15, 2019)

On regular flatware with no filling/weight, I would just put it in the oven on clean. Then polish them.



Hey Kurt, 

Can we talk cabinets some time and maybe post up some work? I'm looking to get into woodworking on a fairly serious hobbyist level and would love to get your advice on tools/equipment/technique!!


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## Palladium (Jul 15, 2019)

I don't know what they call it or refer to it as across the pond, but try soda blasting. It uses nothing but dry baking soda and compressed air.
It will clean it like it was new again!

https://www.google.com/search?q=soda+blasting+plastic&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEk9mnyrfjAhUObc0KHbdABY4Q_AUIEygE&biw=1138&bih=527


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## Dr.xyz (Jul 15, 2019)

Acidified thiourea solution is commonly used to clean silver.


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## Oxygene (Jul 16, 2019)

boil in caustic alkali (NaOH).
The coating of lacquer will do cereal...


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## kurtak (Jul 17, 2019)

Lou said:


> Hey Kurt,
> 
> Can we talk cabinets some time and maybe post up some work? I'm looking to get into woodworking on a fairly serious hobbyist level and would love to get your advice on tools/equipment/technique!!



Lou

I would be more then glad to give you some pointers 

right now I am putting in over time at work so don't really have time to post during the week but will get to it on the week end - maybe start a thread in general chat

Kurt


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## Lou (Jul 17, 2019)

Sounds great, thanks!


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## patnor1011 (Jul 25, 2019)

Ok, so little update. I used isopropanol first and it cleaned it quite nicely. I used cotton buds to get to crevices but then me being lazy looking for a shortcut I went with boiling water and soda in a bucket with aluminium sheet inside.
Here is where I hit a snag. That thing is heavy and curved so there was no way for me to keep a lot of it with contact with aluminium. What happened is that when it reacted it quite cleaned silver which was close to aluminium but instead of depositing crap on aluminium it stuck to higher parts. In short while it looks cleaner and more silvery now compared to when I started it is much dirtier and got yellow/reddish tint on some parts compared to how it looked after alcohol treatment. 
I will post some pictures later. 
I think I will go and get some silver polish from a jeweller or something like that. Soda/water/aluminium works perfectly with coins and bars but this thing is simply too big.


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## nickvc (Jul 26, 2019)

Pat so long as the whole thing is below the surface you can pack the foil around it or above, it could be because of the surface area the foil was coated before the item was fully cleaned.


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## patnor1011 (Jul 26, 2019)

Current state of affairs :mrgreen:


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## patnor1011 (Jul 26, 2019)

One more


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## nickvc (Jul 26, 2019)

Pat the idea I gave you was to turn silver oxide back to silver, if you polish carefully you should now have a stunning item 8)


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## patnor1011 (Aug 13, 2019)

nickvc said:


> Pat the idea I gave you was to turn silver oxide back to silver, if you polish carefully you should now have a stunning item 8)



Yes Nick. It is shaping up rather nicely now. I am using Goddards long term silver polish and some parts which I polished are so bright like mirror. It is going very slow as I do it only when I have some free time. No problem as it was in the family for about 80 years now so couple more weeks till it will be done is no problem... :mrgreen:


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## EliasA (Feb 1, 2020)

Hello All,

I just read a blog about cleaning silver at home, it could be useful
https://bellamysworld.com/blog/how-clean-silverware-home


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