Letter 4785

Polishing Silver with Aluminum Foil and Baking Soda 

This is a thread that just keeps on going, seemingly with a life of it's own...

There are a couple other compounds of silver that can blacken the surface other than the silver sulfide (tarnish) which is typically found on household silver products. Silver oxide is possible on items which have been in corrosive or hot environments, and there are other compounds (i.e., silver cyanide) which are black or dark brown. Fortunately, silver chemistry tends to be along similar lines of bonding mechanisms, so there are potential solutions to most of these stains as well. Most of these compounds are somewhat more soluble in ammonium hydroxide than in water, and a good way to make ammonium hydroxide at home it to mix ammonia with water. Ammonia, bought at the grocery store, is in fact a solution of ammonium hydroxide. If you try the tarnish removal system with aluminum reduction method and it does not work almost immediately, try soaking the parts in some warm ammonia solution first. Do this outside--ammonia fumes are nasty--and --never-- mix ammonia with any other household cleaners or disinfectants for obvious safety considerations! Keep in mind if you use ammonium hydroxide to dissolve the oxides, any silver in the oxide layer will not be reduced & the silver in the oxide will be lost (unlike the tarnish system in which the silver is actually re-deposited). However, oxide layers tend to be rather thin on silver. Ammonia solutions will not harm silver.

By the way, from an earlier response, washing soda is sodium carbonate monohydrate, and baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Either "chemical" works well in the silver tarnish removal system using water & aluminum, as they are almost the same thing. baking soda [link is to product info at Amazon] is just easier to obtain thanks to Arm & Hammer! Happy silver cleaning!

Dale Woika
- Bellefonte, PA

I have a silver sculpture in the form of a small (10" x 12") tree. No leaves just limbs and the Aluminum procedure won't work because I can't make contact with all the surfaces on the tree! Need just a solution! Any suggestions?

Kenneth R [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Charlotte, NC

Ed. note: Maybe we're misunderstanding, but if the item is conductive, any point on it can touch the aluminum and the rest of it should get cleaned.

Home-made Silver Dip: Put some hot water in an aluminium pan, some water softener powder and salt. Dissolve the ingredients before dipping silver. Tarnish will dissolve immediately. Dip silver in cool water to rinse off solution when done. No need for polishing.

I do not know the exact proportions of each ingredient, you might have to try a few times before you get it right, but when you do the results are amazing. Will remove tarnish from even the most intricate areas of silver. You can mix as much or little solution as necessary for larger or smaller pieces.

Nina B [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Hamden, CT, USA

Have several old silver services from great grandparents and all are very tarnished. Unable to use hands due to arthritis. Is there an good dip the can be safely used without damaging my silver?

Laura S [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
hobbyist - Mobile, AL, USA

Tarn-X [link is to product info at Amazon]is the brand of instant, thiourea type, silver tarnish remover that I see everywhere.

Chris Owen
- Houston, TX, USA

Why do you have to use HOT water with baking soda Al etc.., why not cold water?

Caitlin [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
student - Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Almost all chemical reactions occur faster at higher temperatures because of much higher ion mobility, Caitlin.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

I have old silver sugar dish and would like to know how much or the measurements of each ingredients to use to clean this. This was in the family for quite awhile and now I have it and would like to clean it up and display it.

Thanks,

Ann [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
hobbyist - Port Hope, Michigan, USA

My husband and I had seen someone on a talk show cleaning silver with the water softener, aluminum pie plate, salt and hot water. We didn't have everything necessary and soaked the silver in warm water and ammonia. Nothing much happened. Then I found this site. We put aluminum foil in the bottom of the sink. Added salt and then grabbed some dryer sheets. The results were fantastic.

Helen W [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Cocoa, Florida, USA

The reason this works for only some people is, hard water, you need to use equal parts Calgon water softener, from any grocery store, and same amount of it as the amount of Baking soda, like, 1/4 cup of each with the warm water.

It works real quick and sweet, only problem is Calgon is in a BIG box and costs like 10 bucks, but well worth it.

The hard minerals block the chemical action, you need soft water.

This is from a professional Jeweler. Good luck.

Jack P [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Calgary, Canada

Sourcing:

I found a precious metals cleaning plate and activator on skymall.com. Product number is 65593J

Judy M [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Lisle, IL, USA

Ed. note: Thanks Judy. This appears to be a resale of the previously mentioned Museum Precious Metals Cleaning Plate from Hammacher Schlemmer.

I want to thank everyone who has posted here; all the information has been extremely helpful. I'm an American residing in the coastal regions of Central Queensland, Australia. The weather here is quite humid, as I reside at the lower end of the Tropics. Much of my silver jewelry has become tarnished and regular polishes/cleaners available here were not doing the trick. So, I tried the aluminium, bicarbonate soda & boiling water, as suggested on this post, and it worked wonders. I only had to polish a few pieces that had tarnished very badly (large black sports) due to the salt air & humid temperatures. I will definitely be using this cleaning method again, as it is convenient, inexpensive and natural (no chemicals or abrasives involved).

Thank you everyone!

Doris T [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Freshwater Point, QLD, Australia

This is a question for Dale Woika. From your chemical equation, I am assuming that the silver sulphide turns back to native silver and plates back onto the silver item. I have seen people suggesting you add salt to the equation. What does this do? I have some old silver plate items that I want to clean up, but don't want to remove any of the silver....

Jennifer P [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
individual - Vancouver, BC, Canada

After reading through all the postings...can someone please just sum up the final answer...is it boiling water, aluminum and baking soda. I tried it without the boiling water (as the original post stated) and it did not work. thank you!

Debbie [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Crosswicks, NJ

Yep, it's getting long and raggedy, but unfortunately it can only be partially summed up, Debbie :-)

What can be said from general science principles is that the process cannot work without the aluminum, and that boiling water is much faster and more effective than cooler water. But some readers say warm water is fine, others say it has to be boiling; and some readers insist baking soda works fine, while others say the process only works with Washing Soda [link is to product info at Amazon], and one says you need water softener if your water is hard.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

I am very sorry Quik-Dip can no longer be found. I had a small bottle and cleaned my silver with it, my silver looked great. I had to call a friend to tell her about it and how it cleaned in such a sort time, well we both thought we would be able to purchase it some where local, but when I went on the internet I was surprised to learn they don't make it any more (like always -- when a household item is useful they stop making it, and it is a big loss).

Margie J [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Omaha, Nebraska

You can also get Hagerty silver dip online from walshbrothers.co.uk (in the US too, I think, as it has prices in both US dollars and GB Pounds). I've had no problems ordering stuff from US companies and getting it delivered to the UK, so I don't see why it shouldn't work the other way round...

LJ Ve
- Hampshire, UK

Noxon 7 [link is to product info at Amazon]is available at Bed Bath and Beyond... not the dip but a 7 metal polish [Ed. note: also available by the case from this link at Instawares]. cleans and shines...but, I do not see silver listed as a metal it cleans...Another product made in CA a few yars ago...stated on the label it had cancerous potential...I can't remember the name of it..but I will stick with Baking Soda and Aluminum and Hot Water.

Isis H [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Montague, NJ, USA

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Ed. note: For more about electrolytic cleaning of silver, please see letters: 14623, 16626, 18126, 19396, 19814, and 34314.

I finally found the combination of products to dip silver
I have silverware that is so time conduming to clean, and I remember watching a show on 13 several years ago . If you combine in a pot silver foil on the bottom several tablespoon of salt and a large amount of water softener it really works I have clean silverware to prove it.
I can't give the exact amount of water softener but if you keep dipping and it doesn't work add more

I hope this helps

Karyn F [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Bloomfield, NJ

Ted Mooney is partially right: Particles move faster at higher temperature (temperature is the average amount of kinetic energy in a substance). Faster particles mean more particle collisions per unit time. More particle collisions per unit time mean faster dissolution, reaction, and ion mobility.

Also, every reader should bear in mind that silver polisihing cloths and silver cleaning dips remove silver from the object being cleaned: polishing cloths rub away the silver sulfide and some metallic silver. Commercial dips dissolve away silver sulfide. While only a small amount may be removed each dip, since silver will tarnish repeatedly, every time you dip tarnished silver, you will lose more and more silver (as the sulfide salt) to the dip.

The battery and aluminum foil methods described above reverse the silver sulfide formation, restoring tarnish to metallic silver WITHOUT removing any silver

To Jennifer P from Vancouver, the salt allows for electrons to flow easily through the solution, completing the electrical circuit needed for any electrochemical reaction such as this.

To everybody who had trouble with the aluminum foil method, make sure that a) the water is warm or hot, b) the silver item MUST be in contact with the foil, c) salt and water softener need to be added (see other posts above).
If it still looks a little tarnished or yellowish afterwards, try buffing with a soft cloth, as there may be bits of aluminum sulfide on your silver that will easily wipe off. Aluminum sulfide will either form on the aluminum foil or form flakes in the water and may coat the object but should be removable.

I found the following website, which is pretty useful
http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/Silver.html

David
Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, University of Michigan

David T [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Ann Arbor, MI, USA

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