How to clean silver at home quickly?
Silver goes so closely with us through life that no one ever thinks how long ago it appeared. Indeed, silver items surround us constantly, and from the very birth, for example, a cross is most often silver, spoons, tableware, then silver jewelry appears. Silver appeared even before our era, and as soon as people understood how this noble metal could be used, the problem of purification appeared. How can you really purify silver?
Everyone knows that this metal is covered with a black coating, there is such a belief that a silver product darkens when it takes away various kinds of damage and evil eye from the owner, they say that the silver ring, for example, will take all the negative on itself. But there are also skeptics who do not take this superstition seriously, but all because blackness appears on silver because the metal is oxidized, and since the speed of this process can be different and it depends not on one, but on a number of factors, such as humidity or dryness in the room, whether the product comes into contact with the body, or simply gathers dust on the shelf and other things.
Most often, your jewelry changes its color and loses its attractive silvery shine under the influence of sulfur compounds, which are found in many cosmetic mixtures, as well as in household chemicals. In addition, blackness can appear as a result of frequent contact with various household processes, for example, you cannot eat onions with a silver spoon, constantly scoop up table salt or eat yolks from eggs.
But nevertheless, all this is inevitable and in the end you find that the ring, chain or personalized spoon have changed color. Silver darkened, how can you clean this metal at home?
There are quite a few ways to cleanse your silverware, they have been invented for centuries and each generation has contributed.
The essence of all these manipulations will consist in two processes, you can force the silver sulfide formed on the surface to interact with the metal more actively, then this dark film will go away by itself, or you can clean off the plaque.
If you decide to use the chemical method, then you will not lose the layer of precious metal, as many believe, but we will warn you that it will be more difficult to do at home.
Method 1: aluminum foil
If you need to return the shine, for example, to your silver spoon, you can use a metal that is more active - aluminum, available to everyone, is at your service. How does such a reaction take place and what is this method based on? The fact is that aluminum reacts with silver sulfide and, due to this very reaction, the silver product will be restored without any quality loss.
How to make such a manipulation? You need to arm yourself with a pan that is the right size to place your silver. Cover the bottom with foil, and lay your jewelry on the surface, preferably so that the darkened parts touch the aluminum.
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Now take another saucepan and boil water in it, we put this boiling liquid in the kitchen sink. Add soda there, if you have 4 liters of water, you need to add 200 grams of powder. The reaction started and the liquid boiled, wait until the bubbling stops, as soon as the foam comes off with this resulting solution, you need to completely fill in the silver things that you have already laid out on the foil. Leave it on for a few minutes and wait until the triggered reaction works, after at least three to five minutes have passed, you can again admire the shine of your earrings, rings, spoons.
It is necessary to very carefully remove the products from the oxidized liquid and be sure to rinse them in water so as not to get an allergic reaction, when you decide to use them, after thorough rinsing, simply dry the silver.
Method 2: ammonia
Everyone has ammonia in their first-aid kit at home, of course, this is a necessary thing, in case of sudden fainting, for example, but it may well serve us well by cleaning it. In addition, this is also the cheapest way, if we talk about monetary costs, such a remedy costs a penny in any pharmacy. Well, ammonia is absolutely harmless to the skin, does not show aggression towards metals at all, and it’s great at the same time. enters into the reaction we need - destroys silver sulfide.
How to clean black plaque from silver to a shine using ammonia? This option is easier than the first: you need a special solution, which is not difficult to prepare. Take a liter of ordinary clean water and add only two tablespoons of ammonia there, if it seems to you that the pollution is too strong, feel free to add soap or hydrogen peroxide to these ingredients. Such a mixture will work longer than soda with foil, but after fifteen minutes of being in such a solution, you can completely get rid of plaque.
Please note that the reaction time directly depends on the degree of dirtiness of your jewelry - if the oxidation is very strong, leave the solution to work for an hour. And this method is still not so gentle on the metal itself, after a long cleaning procedure, some of the silver will also evaporate, along with the oxide.
Be sure to take into account how dirty your product is, the time of the procedure will depend on it.
Method 3: citric acid
Something, but almost everyone also has lemon, because it is an irreplaceable item in everyday life, besides the fact that it is a food supplement, many use this cheap tool in the old fashioned way instead of an impressive part of household chemicals. And citric acid can help with our problem. But, of course, there are certain conditions for the process to proceed as we need it.
Acids do not react on tarnished metal if they are at a warm room temperature. And so we will use heating.
We prepare our working solution: add 200 g of citric acid to a liter of clean running water and put our silver things in this mixture, as well as a piece of copper, you can use a wire, however, we need the entire contents of the saucepan to heat up evenly, so just put on a gas burner is not allowed, we use the water bath method.
This "soup" made of silver and lemon should boil for about 15 minutes, but again, if the contamination is stronger than usual, leave it for 30-40 minutes. By the way, there is an important rule - be sure to turn on the hood or open the windows wide open during this procedure, because vapors can be unsafe and harm your health.
Ventilate the room during this procedure, the vapors that emit can contain many harmful substances.
When the silver is cleaned, be sure to rinse it under water and dry it naturally.
Method 4: acetic acid
Vinegar is also included in the top of those things and mixtures that are in every home. It is vinegar that perfectly removes plaque and any mold from silver jewelry, it is our faithful assistant in the struggle for a beautiful shine. You can use a six percent and nine percent solution.
You will need to heat the vinegar and soak a soft cloth in it, and you can already wipe the dirt with it, while trying to press. Vinegar is a more aggressive solution than lemon, so we will not boil it, besides, when boiling vinegar, so much bad vapors will be released that an open window will not save you. Therefore, it will be enough to simply wipe away the mold and blackness with warm vinegar solution.
Method 5: mechanical cleaning
As mentioned at the beginning, you can use not only chemical methods and you probably wondered what you can do in order not to fiddle with all these solutions. The answer is polish. But here it is important to remember that silver still belongs to soft metals and you must act carefully so as not to damage your ring or earrings.
To polish the silver thing, you can use any product that contains a small abrasive, that is, several products from a woman's cosmetic bag will do - lipstick, powder, as well as toothpaste or powder.
Equip yourself with any lint-free cloth, apply the product to this piece and rub your product until the long-awaited shine appears. After manipulation, wash and wipe off the silver. By the way, you can use a regular eraser from a stationery store.
With this TOP 5 Silver Care Tips coming to an end, we hope you have found your answer to the question of how to clean darkened silver at home.