How to Remove Tarnish from Silver

Has your favorite silver keepsake become dulled by tarnish? Do you want to restore that like-new shine and luster? What can you do?

You could grab a cloth and some silver polish and rub and rinse, rub and rinse, rub and rinse ... (you get the picture). Not only is this a bit tedious, but polishes that you might use generally contain abrasives that remove small quantities of silver from the surface with every rub. Just take a look at the rubbing cloth after a silver cleaning. That black stain on the cloth contains silver. For sterling silver pieces, that may not be a big problem, but over-polishing silver plated pieces can eventually wear through the layer of plating and ruin the piece.

There is an alternative. This short article will show you how you can remove the tarnish using common household items without all the "elbow grease" and without wearing away any silver.

Not to get to technical, but a tarnish is primarily results from the silver reacting with sulfur compounds in the atmosphere to form silver sulfide (sulfur gets into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels). So, to remove the tarnish, the trick is to chemically remove the sulfur and only the sulfur from the silver. Fortunately, this can be done using items you probably already have in your kitchen: a pan, aluminum foil, baking soda, salt, water, and a stove.