A Science Experiment

This summer I inherited my Great-Grandmother's silver tea service. Unfortunately, it was badly tarnished. I tried everything to make it look presentable - TarnX, silver cream, and about 3 other silver cleaners. Nothing seemed to do the trick and my hands were too tired to keep trying! I contemplated having a professional try to clean the pieces or possibly getting it replated. Before I sought professional help I did some goggling. Don't you love Goggle? And I can across this link. You need aluminum foil, salt, baking soda, hot water, clean towel and some silver polishing cream. The combination of the salt, aluminum foil and water creates a chemical reaction known as ion exchange. The ion exchange causes the tarnish on the silver to be transferred to the foil!

Here's a before picture of one of the silver pieces:

Basically I followed these steps.

1. Layered my sink with aluminum foil and filled it with hot water.

2. Added two tablespoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of baking soda.

3. Placed one silver piece at a time in the water.

4. The instructions called for 5 minutes per piece - it took mine at least 1-2 hours per piece.

5. Removed silver from the water and wiped down with a clean towel and then used silver cream polish.

6. Tarnish GONE!!!

* I did have to repeat this entire process for each piece, I think the foil starts to collect too much tarnish so you have to start over.

* for the silver trays I used a bathtub!

Here's the after photo:

Not completely perfect but such an improvement! I'm so happy to have this wonderful set from my Great-Grandmother. I am displaying it in our dining room on an antique tea cart I bought in Canton for $40.

YEA for ion exchange! Haha :) If you know of any other tips let me know, I'm currently working on cleaning up a pair of brass buffet lamps with crystals and I'm having a hard time getting the brass clean. I'll post pictures when I get them all cleaned up!