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How To Polish Silver
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 | Few things catch your eye better than polished silver reflecting the sunlight. For how to polish silver, along with some surprising ways to keep that silver beautiful, click on the headings below and learn to: |
My preferred way to polish silver jewelry is with Empire's Instant Tarnish Remover because this liquid polish:
- Cleans quickly
- Works great
- Doesn't cost much, and
- Lasts for years
Take care if you have gemstone-and-sterling jewelry, and make sure that it can be cleaned with a liquid silver polish. Some gemstones, such as lapis and pearls, are too porous for this method.
How do you polish gemstone jewelry that can't tolerate a liquid cleaner? Brilliant! Polishing Cloths work really well and are safe for nearly all your jewelry.
When in doubt, look up your gemstones on the How To Clean Jewelry page and make sure you know how to polish silver and gemstone jewelry safely.
The bonus with the polishing cloths is that they leave an undetectable residue that inhibits tarnish. In addition to silver, these also clean gold and other metals.
Gentler yet, for jewelry containing near-porous materials, such as pearls, shells and bone, use a Silver Puff or extra-gentle liquid cleaner.
Do not wash polishing cloths or silver puffs, or you will wash away their cleaning ability.
How to polish silver for free? One common way is with toothpaste... I tried it out of curiosity. It takes a while to clean your sterling this way, but it does leave a fresh, minty scent.
(I personally think it's worth spending a few bucks on liquid polish or a polishing cloth...besides, you can't use toothpaste on pearls!)
2. How To Prevent Tarnishing
There are 3 easy ways, each of which works very well alone or even better in combination:
- Store sterling silver jewelry in a zip lock bag. This will keep it shiny for a very long time. (Don't do this with pearls.)
- Brilliant! Polishing Cloths, above, leave an undetectable residue that inhibits tarnish.
Line your jewelry box or zip lock bag with Silver Saver Paper. Silver Saver Paper absorbs the sulfur in the air, which causes tarnishing. Line your jewelry box with this paper and replace every six months. This stuff works great!
My favorite pick from the above? Either the zip lock bags or the Silver Saver Paper.
Read on to learn about a great new way to avoid polishing silver...
3. The New Sterling That Doesn’t Need to be Polished
The .925 sterling means that it’s 92.5% silver. The remaining 7.5% is typically copper. However…
There is a new type of sterling silver called Argentium ® silver. It’s 92.5% silver, and therefore meets the legal requirements for sterling, but about 1% of the copper is replaced with germanium. This significantly alters - and improves - the properties...
- Argentium ® silver requires only a light dusting or occasional wipe with a soft cloth to remain tarnish free. The best part is that the tarnish resistance increases over time.
- Germanium atoms gradually migrate to the surface of the silver, creating a protective germanium oxide layer (and no, you can’t see it).
- Argentium ® silver also resists dents, scratches and abrasions.
- As if this isn’t enough, manufacturing Argentium ® silver is much easier on the environment than traditional sterling silver.
Sterling silver jewelry components made with Argentium ® silver is still rare, but expect to see more and more of it as time goes by.
OK, so if this Argentium ® silver is so wonderful, why isn't there any of it on the web site? I can get some jewelry components in Argentium ® silver, but not all...What that means to you is that half the sterling in a piece of jewelry would tarnish, and half wouldn't.
Not much point in that.
Rest assured I'm watching the Argentium ® silver market carefully. When all the silver in an article of jewelry can be Argentium ® silver, I'll have it on the website. Keep current with updates by joining the Handmade Jewelry Blog.
For more detailed information about Argentium ® silver, here are some excellent websites:
Peter Johns of Middlesex University, UK, the inventor of Argentium Sterling (a great site)
The Society of American Silversmiths
An article from the Society of North American Goldsmiths
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