How to Clean Silver Heirlooms
1 Material
$10
1 Hour
Easy
Here is an easy way to clean pieces, sterling and/or plate silver with a large pot of hot hot water and baking soda! Full tutorial, credits and additional resources are in link at bottom. As with any cleaning technique, test this process on a small piece.I started with a sterling silver pitcher. My thought was go big or go home. It was covered with decades of tarnish.
This pitcher was tarnished and it had so many intricate details. Here are the steps to clean heirloom silver.
- Bring large pot of water to a slow simmer setting
- Add approximately 1/4 cup baking soda. Some tutorials suggest adding a little salt. I added a little more baking soda and salt.
Once the water begins to simmer, turn off the heat. Add slightly crumpled sheets of aluminum paper to the simmering pot of water. I made the mistake of rolling the aluminum paper into balls which resulted in them floating to the top. I added additional aluminium foil and tucked the sheets around the pitcher. You want the foil to be near the crevices with high concentrations of tarnish. Here's the foil after I removed the sterling pitcher.
This is a few minutes later. I repeated the process and weighted the pitcher down with a tea kettle. As you can see the full submerged bottom of the pitcher got the best results.
I love the results. However, if you do not get the results you had hoped for repeat the process and increase your baking soda.
Full tutorial and credit to where I first found the idea is included on my website, Everyday Edits dot co. Here is the link to other popular projects.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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