Removing Tarnish From Silver Jewelry

Tarnish is a form of oxidization. Other common forms of oxidation are rust and copper patina. Silver reacts with its surroundings to form a chemical compound called silver sulfide, better known as tarnish. Unlike iron and copper, silver requires more than just the air around it to tarnish. It requires sulfur. Sulfur is an element commonly found around us. It is in eggs and onions, wood, rubber, paint, and fossil fuels. Even should none of these things ever come into contact with silver jewelry, it will still tarnish over time. This is because, over the last hundred years, all the internal combustion engines in the world have thrown enough atomized sulfur into the air to instigate the oxidization of silver wherever it may be. A little known fact is that, prior to the heavy industrialization of the world, silver didn't tarnish unless it came into contact with sulfur some other way.

Silver jewelry which is only just begun to tarnish is easier to clean that silver which has become almost black with tarnish. Sometimes a simple rub with a clean rag is all it takes. However once the silver has begun to yellow, a chemical silver polish will be required. These liquid polishes are rubbed on with a rag and then wiped off. There is no real chemical reaction which takes place. Silver sulfide is less sturdy than plain silver. When silver has tarnished to the point of being brown or black, a chemical dip is needed. The exact chemical makeup of this type of dip varies, but it is always very caustic and extremely dangerous, both to people and to silver. Typically it is so strong that if you leave your silver jewelry in the dip for more than a few seconds it will eat through the tarnish, as well as the silver beneath, causing unsightly pits and pock marks. Nevertheless, a quick rinse in a chemical dip is sometimes necessary to break up the absolute worst of the tarnish, the rest of which can be removed with a lot polishing.

Silver is a very soft metal, as anyone who has owned a silver ring for a long time will know. It deforms very easily, and it is also easily removed. When you use a chemical dip, or silver polish, or even polish your silver by hand, you are rubbing away the silver itself. This is occurring at a near microscopic level, so it is highly doubtful that it would be noticed, except over more than a century of constant use. Even so, it is still happening and the level of detail on your silver jewelry would be slowly eroded as a result. One should be particularly careful when dealing with jewelry that is only silver plated. Such plates are only a few molecules thin, and will erode if polished too aggressively or too often.

how to remove tarnish and clean silver coins, bars, or jewelry ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp62AvR7kFM
I discovered an easy method of removing tarnish from silver, using stuff we all have at home. After viewing the technique I decided to film myself trying ...
Remove Tarnish from Silver - Science is Fun in the Lab of
scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/TARNISH.html
If you have any objects made from silver or plated with silver, you know that the bright, shiny surface of silver gradually darkens and becomes less shiny.
How to Remove Tarnish from Silver - Yahoo! Voices -
voices.yahoo.com/how-remove-tarnish-silver-1309069.html
Mar 21, 2008 This article describes an easy way to remove tarnish from silver without rubbing away any of the silver. It uses items normally found in your kitchen.
How do you remove tarnish from silver - The Q&A wiki
wiki.answers.com Categories Home & Garden Cleaning
Cleaning Tarnished Silver The short answer: A good silver polish and "elbow grease". There are a number of ways to clean your silver, but you need to be careful as to ...
How to remove tarnish and clean silver coins, bullion, junk silver ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZGKYmq7-g
This is a simple cleaning method for silver using items you probably already have in your home. As I'm sure some will tell me, some old coins with ...
Polish, clean silver, remove tarnish, silver cleaning plate ...
www.metalbrite.net
Metal Brite Electrolytic cleaning plate for cleaning Sterling, Silver Plate, Jewelry, Brass & Copper. Removing Tarnish with Silver polish. Replating and refinishing ...
How to Remove Tarnish From Fake Jewelry eHow
www.ehow.com Home & Garden Housekeeping House Cleaning
Fake jewelry, politely called costume or fashion jewelry, originated in the 1930s to provide women with accessory options designed to match any outfit inexpensively ...
Clean Tarnished Silver Jewelry Jewelry Making Journal
jewelrymakingjournal.com/clean-tarnished
by Elena Zharina; all rights reserved. If youve worn silver jewelry, you know how tarnished it can get in a very short time. We all know about silver polish ...
How to Remove Tarnish From Silver eHow
www.ehow.com Home Repair & Maintenance General Home Repair
Silver items are often passed down as heirlooms and given as wedding or anniversary gifts. Silver tarnishes over time due to sulfur-containing substances in the air ...
FAQ: How Do I Remove Tarnish from Sterling Silver Jewelry ...
blog.peggyli.com/2007/06/removing-tarnish-from-sterling-silver.html
I've got tons of sterling silver supplies that I use for my handmade jewelry business, Peggy Li Creations. Every now and then, there is a batch that has "turned" a ...