As we all know, silver jewelry tends to get a layer of tarnish on its surface over time. Be it because of sweat or some exposure to chemical components, your silver rings, earrings, pendants, etc aren’t as shiny as they were when you just bought your items.
Now, I know, some people like the ancient aspect, the “not so new”, aspect of their silver jewelry that indicates that they’ve owned their items for quite some time or they simply like it because ancient jewelry items kind of hold a mystique of their own. Well, if that is the way you like your silver jewelry, I guess you can skip this article all together although I would still advise to continue reading as it holds some precious bits of information on how to take care of silver jewelry items.
First off, though, do you even know why it is called 925 silver? You know, it is the inscription that the connoisseurs search for inside or sometimes at the edges of the items that they are being sold. You’ll usually find that 925 number engraved inside of the rings or on the hooks of the earrings, at the back of a pendant or, for some, on the clasps of their bracelet. Well, that engraved “925” indicates that what you are about to buy is solid silver.
That “925” number is a guarantee that there is at least 92.5% of pure silver in the item. In the real world that means that for every gram of metal that this item is made of, there are 925 milligrams of pure silver and 75 milligrams of another metal. The rest most often being a composite of other metals such as gold, copper, platinum or, in the worst case, lead. Solid silver is in fact an alloy.
“Why is solid silver mixed with another metal”, will you ask? Well, at its purest form, silver is too malleable of a metal. So, to make it more resistant to state changes, jewelers have to add in another metal in the mix and that is what we call sterling silver. Added to that is the fact that pure silver cannot be polished to a high shine due to its malleable nature.
Most 925 sterling silver items have the same shine. It is, though, possible to make a few assumptions as to what metal was added to the pure silver to make it 925 silver. And how we can see that, is by letting our item oxidize a bit. It is when silver has oxidized a bit that we can effectively see its true nature. For that, just let your item sit under a desk lamp, for example, for a few days and see the result.
If the item get a slight yellow shine, well you guessed it, it has probably been mixed with some gold although it can sometimes have been mixed with yellow copper.
If the item gets a slight red of pink shine, it has probably been mixed with red copper.
If the item gets dark patterns or marks all over it, it has probably been mixed with lead (which is the most common occurrence). This type of sterling silver tends to tarnish a lot faster than the other two and you will have to clean it more often if you don’t want your item to look old.
If some white marks appear then it could be some platinum or palladium although these two tend to be rarer as those two metals are more expensive than pure silver. They will, however, make for shinier silver.
We can clearly see three things in those two photos.
On the first photo, we can see the reddish or pinkish tarnish appearing at the edge of the silver coin which is charateristic of red copper mixed in with pure silver.
On the second photo, there are two things to note. As we can see, the ring has taken a yellowish hue that is typical of gold mixed in with pure silver. However, we can also clearly see a giant dark patch right in the middle. That dark patch is a sign that this silver has been mixed with some lead as well. Those dark stains are the most difficult ones to clean up on silverware.
All of that brings us to the main topic of this article. How, then, can you clean your silver jewelry so that it stays shiny and in the same condition as when you bought it?
Well there are a couple of different approaches to that, ranging from the cheapest to the more expensive solutions. But don’t worry, even the most expensive solutions are not in fact that expensive to apply.
But first, a little disclaimer here. We can read on so many sites that baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in addition to water is sufficient to clean silver jewelry but you should be aware that baking soda can actually damage your silver items. Effectively, sodium bicarbonate can be highly corrosive to silver jewelry and mess up its polish and make it more porous. Especially if what you are trying to clean is ancient silverware: ancient silverware sometimes contains less pure silver than normal 925 sterling silver.
The cheap solution. The cheapest solution to your tarnishing silver jewelry would be to use a simple toothbrush with a bit of dishwashing soap and to brush it gently with it! Weird, right? Dishwashing soap keeps your home dishes clean. So why wouldn’t they do the same for your silver jewelry? Now you don’t have to buy expensive dishwashing soap for that. Gentler ones are preferable. A toothbrush is in fact one of the best utensils to scrub off those dark patches that are stuck inside the unattainable corners of your jewelry. Just go easy on it!
Slightly more expensive method. If the pieces you are working on are smooth and do not have hard to reach surfaces, you could use a piece of whatever cloth (but preferably cotton) and apply a bit of silver cleaning agent onto it. You should then rub your item gently with. In addition, like in the previous method, if your jewelry has hard to reach surfaces, you could use a toothbrush in addition to your cleaning agent. Silver cleaning agents being, for some, composed of chemicals that are corrosive to the skin, it is advised to wear thin gloves during the cleaning process.
The professional method. Professional jewelers most often use microfiber cloths. Those pieces of cloth are made to clean silver and aren’t like traditional pieces of cloth in that they contain a cleaning agent inside of them to get rid of the tarnish and oxidation. In addition, microfiber cloths are useful in that they will protect your jewelry for a durable time by coating your items with a bit of the cleaning agent that is inside of them. Those microfiber cloths are also perfect to reach normally unattainable corners of your items. Beware though, those cloths have to be kept unwashed so as to not disperse the cleaning agent that they contain.
The expert method. Now, this method might seem far-fetched for regular cleaning, especially as it required a bit of professional equipment, but for the people who want to clean batches of silver items in one time, that is what you might need: an ultrasonic cleaner. Ultrasonic cleaners present themselves in the form of a little box with a mini metal cart that goes into it. Fill the little compartment with water and add a specific cleaning agent (usually delivered with the appliance). Ultrasonic cleaners use the power of ultrasounds to scrub off the dirt and the oxidation off of silver items. In addition, ultrasonic cleaner can be used to clean a diversity of other items such as rubber joints, stainless steel or other metal items.
This concludes our article on the different solutions you can use to clean your silver jewelry. If any other come to your mind, be sure to comment under this article and we might add it in the article.
