Scrub-a-Dub-Dub - Silver Sunday #2

For the love of silver I will repeat parts of a post that I did a little while ago.    Probably the biggest deterrent to owning silver is the fact that it takes a lot of elbow grease to keep it  spiffed up and shiny.   I once felt that way too.   But that was then and this is now.

Depending upon the piece, I often prefer them tarnished.  I don’t like when the tarnish is spotty but otherwise, tarnished is good.  One thing that I have found is when I find pieces that have been neglected forever and I want to clean up the blackened look, it’s time for a bath.  Scrub-a-dub-dub time for the tub.

A mixture of warm water, washing soda and tin foil.  Somehow they all react to remove (or at very least loosen) the tarnish, depending on the amount of tarnish.  This can be a perfect solution for the pieces that you don’t want to remove all the tarnish.  Just check the pieces every few minutes until they have the look you want.

They started like this.

The pieces that I did worked out well – some I wanted a little shinier so I finished them off with polish.  Some were perfect.    
After the spa treatement.....

This brush is sterling and it turned out great.

The carved handled sugar bowl did peel a little. 

 (sorry for the poor quality of the picture)

NOTE:  If your piece is valuable, you might want to use the traditional silver polishes.   You wouldn’t want to ruin an heirloom.  

For more silver lovelies, visit Beth at Gypsy Fish.  You’ll be glad you did!