OT : cleaning silver

[muffyn]

how do you guys clean silver items?

I have a silver plate tea set which I have ignored cleaning for some time, since it is such a pain.
I have tried several cleaners & it looks pitiful. it is not shiny ( pretty dull, except bottom) & how the heck do you clean all the filigree? it stays black with tarnish! other parts still are not silver,,, they have these splotchys of black that are still in the silver.........

ideas?
so does silver get ruined if you don't keep it polished?

 

[dis-happy]

I'm a big fan of Hagerty's silver cleaner. It puts silver back on, not just strip it away with the tarnish. Try the spray version for the filigree, use a soft rag to rub it in, then rinse in hot water---should look as good as new. But if your tea set is silver plate and there are black splotches that can't be removed it's possible that the silver finish has already been eaten away. There are places you can go that will re-finish with a new silver coat. Does the tea set sit out? If you don't use it often keep your polished silver in special bags that will keep the pieces from tarnishing. HTH

 

[CarolA]

It's not going to be easy. I have a lot of silver and silver plate. When I first inherited it, the stuff was nasty LOL! (My coffee/tea service is with my mother, it is silver plate and does have one or two small spots that need resilvering, but overall we got it in good shape)

I just did all of my other stuff this weekend

1. Wash in hot soapy water.
2. Get the silver polish out. Apply with a damp cloth and put some elbow grease behind it. Keep rubbing and rinsing until it's clean.
3. For filigree and trim I have used a small SOFT toothbrush to get the polish down into the "tiny" areas.

If it is silver plated and you don't clean it, it will be damaged