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Cleaning old sterling silver spoons

Q. Hi, I collect old silver (sterling) spoons from the Boulder Colorado area.
The spoons are tarnished.
1) OK to clean a old spoon or is there some reason I should not?
2) some of the bowls have a "gold wash" in them. Will cleaning them with a silver polish harm the gold wash?
thanks

Gary Goltz
hobbyist - Boston, Massachusetts, USA
February 8, 2010

"English Silver Hallmarks"
by Judith Banister
hallmarks_banister_english_silver

on Amazon or eBay
or AbeBooks
(affil link)

A. Silver spoons can be cleaned with precipitated chalk/water mixture ⇨
(thick paste, you can add few drops of ammonia ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] too), gilt spoons can be cleaned only chemically or electrochemically. Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
February 10, 2010

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