a hint: how to clean your silver pendant

with a small pan, some aluminium foil, water, a tea spoon of salt and/or a tablespoon of baking soda you can easily clean your tarnished silver.

to do this, put the flat crumpled alu foil into the pan, dull side up, then put the silver on top of it (direct contact of the silver with the aluminium is important); fill with water until all is covered, pour in the salt and/or baking soda and then heat it all up.

and voilà: in a short time the silver will get white again.

this method has the advantage that it doesn’t alter the structure of the silver surface (as when rubbing it with silver polish or tooth paste). also it will clean cavities.

a rough explanation goes like this: tarnish, which silver may develop at times is a reaction of silver with sulphur   (=sulphur sulfide. eggs, garlic, medicaments and cosmetics, healing baths etc. can contain sulphur). many metals react to sulphur, aluminium quicker than silver. in our little experiment the alu draws the sulphur away from the silver and so leaves it clean.

direct contact between the two metals is important because with the aid of the salt and/or baking powder it triggers a small electrical current. only with this current the electrochemichal process called reduction is possible. heat is speeding it all up.

some sources mention the use of both salt and baking soda. others use one or the other. in my books salt alone works very well.

this simple and ecologically sound cleaning method (no questionable chemicals are used) can be repeated as often as you like.

a more precise explanation can be found here:

http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/Silver.html