Over time, silver loses its beautiful shiny appearance in favor of a duller, darker appearance. Fortunately, we can use science to restore shine using an electrochemical reaction. Said like this, it may seem complicated, but it is not. Just look at the ingredients and the steps to be sure! Your tarnished silver pieces will be as good as new with this very effective grandmother’s tip.
You can also test it on your jewelry as long as it does not have a stone.
What you need:
- A large pot or saucepan
- Aluminum foil
- Take the bicarbonate
The steps:
1) You can do this in two ways: either you line your pot with aluminum foil on the dull side and fill it with water, or you fill it with water and add a large ball of aluminum foil.
2) Bring everything to a boil.
2) Add bicarbonate (the equivalent of two tablespoons of baking soda per two liters of water)
3) Immerse your silverware in it and let it soak for a few moments. Watch.
4) When the piece of silverware is shiny, you can remove it (without burning yourself) and dry it. SO ? Not that complicated, eh?! Please note that this should also be suitable for all your silver objects and in particular to restore shine to silver jewelry. Your earrings, bracelets or even a silver necklace, a bracelet or a silver ring could quickly become beautiful again. On the other hand, be wary if a piece of jewelry is fragile or contains precious stones. And of course, don’t take the opportunity to shine the whole jewelry box! Gold, white gold or gold-plated jewelry has no place there.
Why does it work on tarnished silver? Grandma’s little science point!
From exposure to light and air, silver tarnishes and blackens as it oxidizes and becomes covered with sulfur from silver sulfide (argentite or Ag2S). To remedy this, we create a so-called electrochemical reaction (3Ag2S +2 Al–> 6Ag+Al2S3) with aluminum which has more affinity with sulphide than silver! Yet another proof that aluminum foil can be very useful on a daily basis. Hot water helps speed up this process which is of course safe for money. The shine will quickly return to the silverware!
This tip for tarnished silver on video:
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