6 years later you are still a life saver! I stupidly went swimming in a salt water pool with my brand new anniversary necklace and of course it tarnished. You saved me from having an awkward conversation with my partner! Thank you!
Experienced swimming in a pool w/out removing my silver necklace .. when I ot out of the pool, the silver is blackish ..learned the hard way cuz I have to have the necklace & pendant by the Jeweler ,,, thanks fir sharing
This process does work quite well, especially if you have a piece that is impossibly nasty with corrosion and has turned black (the cheaper the silver, the worse the tarnish is going to be!) Keep in mind that this process is pretty extreme in that it takes away ALL the tarnish, even the stuff that you want down in the little cracks and crevices of the design (the "patina") that gives depth to the pattern. (If it's flat silver, like a cup or something, no problem.) For patterned silver, it's going to look a bit "cold" I guess you'd say, and too-new. The best idea for these pieces is to first clean them, and then let them set around a few weeks to start tarnishing again, so you can use a more gentle process that will clean up the silver but leave the detail in the design. When I did this on a number of different pieces, I found that this bath left some of my silver looking cloudy and gray looking instead of shiny silver. (Some pieces, but not all). If you get this, just re-clean your piece with something very lite like a "Silver Foam" that will make your piece shiny again (you've not "broken" the silver if you see this! You can always just let it re-tarnish and try again!) One reason I found that the solution stops working (other than the water getting pretty nasty after a few pieces) is that the water cools off. Try adding more boiling hot water and see if that helps. And always remember with the foil: shiny side up! If you do it with the dull side up, it won't work.
I am looking to do the lovely faceplate and silver on an Antique singer sewing machine and I like the patina and the darker part in the crevices and just shine up the upper part. Most people do not though and want them all shiny and one bright colour. Thank you
This REALLY does work!! I just did it to a badly tarnished silver necklace of mine and it's come out perfect, as good as new!! Plus I just saved myself 45 euro in the process, as I had taken it to a place only yesterday that specialises in jewellery repairs and cleaning to ask them if they could clean it and for how much. I baulked when the counter assistant said they could clean it but that it would cost me €45. In fairness, when I replied that I thought that was a lot and that I'd need to think about it, he did suggest that I could try soaking the necklace in bicarbonate of soda / baking soda at home myself and that this could work. I did try this suggestion but it didn't work. That's when I Googled "cleaning silver with bicarbonate of soda" and found this video. Thank you SO much!! I'm going to tell everyone I know about it. Thank you!
I had 3 silver rings that were so tarnished they'd become black! I tried commercial cleaners on them and they did nothing but make the black tarnish shiny. :( I just did this today and my rings are all silver and shiny again!! They look just like they day I received them. :D Thank you so much for posting this video!!
I did this too today with a pair of earrings they were black, I tried a cleaner I bought popped it in and shook it like it said to....nothing happened still blackened, came here to find a solution and voila I am now wearing what looks like brand new silver earrings again ! I’m amazed and pleased all at the same time, why this fun stuff wasn’t taught in science labs to kids is beyond me they would love the transformation 👌🏻
I'm soooooo pleased I found this link. Absolutely fantastic! Worked perfectly. Turned by 925 silver from a dull copper back to a perfect brand new looking silver ring again. Thank you so much!
Only works when touching the silver because the solution of baking soda and water + the foil is like a batteries negative charge while you provide the positive charge. You’re sending ions through you to the foil in the solution which the oxide layer on the silver is oppositely charged so it repels the oxide but maintains the silver without damaging it. However the tarnish is also silver, so you do lose a very minute amount of silver in the process.
👍⭐️Thank you!! Can you imagine how happy my 97 year old MeMa is gonna be when I tell her I’m coming over to clean ALL of her silver?!!! I WILL be her favorite forever & always. 😍💝🙏
I just tried this on some silver spoons I purchased. Worked like a charm! Used a green scrubs pad along the edges of the spoons to get the hard to reach stains. The spoons look brand new. Thank you so much for the video!
Silver forms a battery when touching aluminum with the soda being an electrolyte. When you lifted it you formed a better battery by forcing the current (and silver oxides) to flow out of the parts not touching the aluminum.
My locket was so tarnished, i used boiling water, bicarbonate of soda (UK) & salt with the tin foil. And its never looked so clean. Thank you. Defiantly works! Thanks for sharing. :)
Wowwww i tried it on my bangle and ring....it worked in just 2 minutes....and now there is a great shine on my ring and bangle.....thank uuu sooo much sir for this great help
Thank you so much for the help! I had a 10 year old Tiffany necklace and it was super tarnished. In seconds, it looked brand new. The only weird thing is, the water started bubbling and I could smell this weird gas. If anyone tries this method, be careful not to breathe it in.
corcaccia Bs. Millions of housewives would have blown themselves up if that were the case, especially in the old days when almost everybody smoked like a chimney. Mixing baking soda and water is hardly a new thing.
wow, thank u so much i actually tried this on some silver jewelry that tarnished due to a harsh soap i had used and had it sitting there for about a yr...i didnt throw it away because its a charm bracelette, and thank goodness this brought it back..thank u so much, have a blessed day :)
I've tried this method a few different ways to clean silver. What worked best for me was keeping the water boiling hot. It just cools too fast in a dish, and the reaction works best when it's very hot. I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of a stainless steel pan, added the water and baking soda and a little salt, and then heated it to a low boil. The reaction wasn't super quick like yours because my grandmother's silverware had been quite abused and had a layer of sticky nastiness on it and brown gunk in many of the nooks and crannies. The treatment not only returned the tarnish to silver, but also loosened the gunk so I was able to easily brush it off. There was some crusty stuff left on the bottom of the stainless pan, but that came off with Bar Keeper's Friend, a mildly abrasive stainless cleaner. Next time I clean silver this way, I will try holding onto the other end of larger pieces to see if being grounded to me somehow makes a difference. There are a couple other things I'd like to add. When the reaction is going quickly, it often releases hydrogen sulfide, a foul smelling gas with a distinctive rotten egg odor (which not everyone smells equally!). It's not particularly good for you, and it stinks, so you'll want to do this when you can have your windows open and blow the stink outside. If you have pet birds, you should do this silver treatment outside. The same is true for chemical silver cleaners that work quickly, like Tarn-x. If possible, the silver should be given a light polish, afterwards, too. When silver is cleaned using this method or with chemicals like Tarn-x, it often leaves the silver looking kind of cloudy. The chemical reaction has returned the tarnish to silver, but the silver molecules on the surface aren't perfectly smooth because the tarnish reaction moved them. Polishing the silver smooths out the surface, making it shiny again and also making it less likely that it will tarnish again right away (unless you use your silverware on eggs).
@@evilsharkey8954 Thanks hey. So the eggs will tarnish the silver with a fine layer of sulfur? I thought the tarnish was caused by oxidation. (contact with 02 in the air)
@@jethrojackson2524 surprisingly, the most common tarnish is a sulfur compound, silver sulfide. Eggs contain a lot of sulfur, so they speed up the tarnishing process. Sometimes there is also silver oxide, which is also black, and the chemicals that turn tarnish back to silver don’t work on it.
Salt and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) are still chemicals of course, agreed though not harsh. What you do is convert water insoluble silver oxide (tarnish) to silver carbonate which is more soluble, its fairly quick because the alu foil is an electrode with the metal silver as the other electrode and warm water with salt is an electrolyte allowing electrons to flow for the electrochemical process to happen. A clever and mild and cheap method I fully agree! You may find adding a little lemon juice may help as citric acid is a mild organic acid and may assist dissolution of the silver oxide.
This is a correct explanation of the process. To further elaborate, the silverware doesn't need to touch the Aluminum foil, and water doesn't have to be boiling hot. This process works faster and more effectively on brass (copper) jewelry and takes a bit longer for silver. It can also be used to brighten and surface clean gold plated and rhodium plated jewelry.
Brilliant! I'm sure for anyone who is talented in👨🏻🏫chemistry, this would be very basic, but for those of us for whom high school chemistry was 45+👵🏻 years ago, it's a lost art! Thanks for the refresher course!👩🎓
Pretty awesome little home trick! I was looking for something like this that is totally non-abrasive to help with old silver coins.. Not to eliminate the patina mind you, but to get rid of that awful white "fog" they sometimes get, which is neither attractive nor desirable... It worked like a charm! Thanks!
@@turns_out_im_kevin Yea it is a commemorative silver dollar for the Statue of Liberty, which my father left me when he passed.. I was totally upset to see its beautiful mirrored proof surfaces becoming cloudy with white fog.. It reminds me of cataracts! That is how awful it looked! But less than 5 mins in the solution with the aluminum foil and it was shining bright again! I wonder how many butlers and maids could have used this to polish their boss' silver, and avoided hours of hand polishing! YIKES!!
You don't need salt. You only need baking soda and aluminum foil in a plastic or glass container. Place the silverware on top of aluminum, add baking soda and then pour boiling water into the container. You may stir the water a little bit while it is bubbling hot and wait. The color will change instantly. So easy!
I was skeptical at first but THIS WORKS. My only complaint is that when you add the hot water and everything fizzes it smells like rotten eggs lol. But 10/10 method would recommend.
Had my sterling silver neckless for over 5 years and wore it everyday tarnished with periodic cleaning. Tried this method without the salt and had boiling hot water and looks better than it did brand new. If your silver is extremely tarnished, like my silver was, try mixing some baking powder with cool water to make a thick paste and polish. Rinse off with cool water and dry very thoroughly. Helpful video.
This method worked very well on my tarnished silver bracelet! I did however, rub some baking soda and iodized salt on my bracelet using my hands before dropping my bracelet on the foil a second time and it seemed to work even better. Thank you!
sometimes there is a large buildup of other chemicals other than the silver sulphide (silver tarnish). this process wont remove them - only the sulphur. So a bit of mild rubbing wont do much harm. be gentle as you dont want to scratch the surface
This is very effective process for turning blackened, bluished silver into white shining silver again!!!👌🏼 For gold too!!! Thank you! Highly recommended!
Tried this with my blackened sterling silver bangle and earring but i prepared water in a pot and allowed to near boiling. Separately i prepared the aluminum foil folded like a square pan then poured roughly equal amt baking soda and salt. I then placed the aluminum foil with salt and bp into the boiling water fully submerged then placed the items inside. I used a spoon to stir arpund and made sure the items were touching the aluminum foil and in a few minutes my jewelry were back to original color almost like how professional jewellers clean their sterling silver minus the harsh chemicals. I think it helped that the pot was still in the burnee so the temp was kept at boiling or really hot temp
Its working absolutely great for me, its simple and easy . I added a little lime juice in it and it works perfectly ,my mom's Sterling silver chain although its not quite dirty looks genuinely brand new now and my silver link chain also which i cannot brush off some black spots vanishes using this method.All i have to do is wait for around 4 hours then take it out and brush it off with detergent powder , amazing thank you
I didn't bother with salt at all. Baking soda, aluminum foil lining (shiny side up) in aluminum bread pan for silverware. Very hot water, a few minutes past boil. Worked beautifully.
If I remember my Chen lessons...This process is a chemical transfer from the silver to the aluminum the salt helps the conductivity of the water. Rubbing the flatware probably slows the process. Keep the item in the bath. Nice video. Good results. JoeB
Really amazing! The best video in this category, and I have watched a few before trying on my silverware. It worked brilliantly! Thanks a lot for the tip. I had this really lovely necklace that was totally black and it now looks brand new.
Keep a little ball of rolled up aluminum foil to use as a scrubber for those deep crevasses that sometimes make up the design of the silverware. The foil ball will react with the cleaner and make it easier to remove.👍🏻
Years ago I bought and aluminum sheet , it had holes in it from a company advertising on TV. It was pure aluminum and all you had to do was put it in a non-metal bowl or basin, add Calgon water softener and throw your silverware in it. I remember that after a while the aluminum plate became tarnished. I had to scrub it periodically with a stainless steel scrubber and it reactivated the aluminum. All I did was put it back in the bowl and everything started working again.
I own about a kilo of sterling silver that I adore. But absolutely hate cleaning it! So I can not wait to try this. I usually use the cream cleaners and cover myself neck and a face in blacked cream yuck. Then I’m wearing my freshly cleaned pieces and I’m turning black through the day. As I didn’t fully remove the tarnish remover 🤣so annoying when this happens I’m so proud of my collection and want it to sparkle. Watching this is so so fascinating I’m eagerly awaiting tarnishing to remove with this method. Sad I know but I’m fed up paying out for all these different cleaners for my silver and my copper pieces etc/ thank you for sharing
With that much silver to clean, you might try a trick that museums do when they have antique sterling on public display: find a silversmith who can safely varnish it for you. It's covered with a clear coating of some sort that mostly prevents the silver from tarnishing. You might have to run over it with a silver cloth occasionally just to be 100% but that will save you a lot of work. Also, think about a rotation by which you get EVERYthing clean once, and then on a weekly rotation, go over a portion of the collection with something like a Sunshine Cloth (look it up - they are miraculous!! I keep 4 or so around all the time!) to keep them bright, that way you are doing just a few pieces at a time and not killing a whole day polishing silver. If you have a big event coming up, THEN you get to polish it bigtime, but a polishing cloth like the Sunshine Cloth (I'm not a rep, just a very satisfied user!) should do for weekly maintenance of your collection, especially as it grows.
redpiano1 thank you for your reply I shall have a search for it. At the moment I’m testing out some various ways I’ve been looking at and learning what works best for you me. Thank you again
Yes, this does work quite well to clean your silver items, however, what n one's video shows is what happens afterwards, especially if they are not dried properly. By properly, I mean THOROUGHLY DRIED. I set mine freshly cleaned items on the tile counter in my smallest bathroom, set up my blow dryer on low heat to dry them for about an hour to make sure. This seems to work best to keep the tarnish from coming back worse than it was before, faster than ever before. IMHO...Thanks, hope it helps.
Very nice tip! I have to do a ton of old silverware today. Adding some extra tips for viewers: 1. Speed up video to 1.5 speed. 2. Tear foil in places, makes some holes, works better for this chemistry. 3. Use rock salt (purple-ish color) which works faster apparently. 4. Use boiling water and stir it with a spoon.
Tore a piece of aluminum foil shiny side up. Put in one Tbsp baking soda. A few shakes of table salt. Dumped earrings and a ring in. Poured very hot water from microwave in there. Fizzed. After fizzing stopped removed, rinsed, dried. Like new. Yay
It removes the tarnish a lot better and faster if you add vinegar, and use BOILING water. First of all, you have to have the baking soda covering the entire bottom of the pan, and then the silver lying on top of the baking soda, and then a layer of baking soda covering the top of the silver. Put the baking soda with the silver in the dish ahead of time DRY, then pour in the BOILING water and the vinegar and salt. If you would have done that you do not need to stir the water. And, of course, the sufide (black tarnish) on the silver moves from the silver and attaches to the aluminum, through electrolysis created by the water, vinegar, baking soda and salt.
The side of foil does not matter Shiny or dull its the same thing The difference in appearance between dull and shiny is due to the foil manufacturing process. In the final rolling step, two layers of foil are passed through the rolling mill at the same time. The side coming in contact with the mill's highly polished steel rollers becomes shiny.
whoa whoa whoaaaaa it most definitely matters -- the shiny side of the aluminum will have a much better contact with the silver than the dull side due to it's surface area, ensuring a much more efficient exchange of ions. the deoxidation will be more evenly uniform, as opposed to using the dull side. for example, a flat piece of silver placed on the 'non-milled' side risks appearances of 'hotspots,' spots where the reaction was stronger or weaker than the surrounding area. it's also easier to gauge the amount of work that resulted by looking at the deposition of the shiny side vs. the dull side. now here im just gonna theorize a bit -- silver has a high thermal conductivity, yet peculiar, as it will transfer it's heat to the aluminum as fast as it can during the duration of contact.. aluminum also has a high thermal conductivity, less than that of silver, but greater than that of the water, which provides heat to the metals, surrounding air, and the container, via convection... lots of wasted heat.. yada yada in short, the shiny side provides better contact to the silver, ensuring better conduction of heat f/ the aluminum, to the silver, and due to silver's tendency to be cooler, the temperature difference alone warrants a heat exchange between the two, less thermal waste, the water should stay hot longer, than if the dull side were up. both sides do work (assuming the dull side is not insulated, and shares electrical conductivity w/ the silver) - however, this is a process called ionization - and because it's so straightforward, i cant agree with, "shiny or dull its the same thing." the dull side will not yield the SAME result as the shiny side, nor will it, ever. also, regarding the aluminum foil manufacturing... many aluminum foil manufacturers wax/insulate the dull side, especially those that press their logos, designs, etc., onto that dull side... and many use poly- rollers, instead of polished steel, too... 'twould be a shame if a printing die were to stick to the dull side of an aluminum ribbon/leaf due to static electricity just before it hits the rollers, im sure you agree!
Quick question so if I decided to use this on a sterling silver necklace that has a resin or gemstone plus pearl type of stone that can't be covered, will it get ruined by any of these materials?🤔 ~please respond
I have watched several of these Videos this evening Lovey and this is the BEST ONE YET ! It's so easy and quick and simple . I like the few items used to get the job done. It's just wonderful. Thank you for sharing and I will be sure to watch for more Videos from you for other ideas and tip's!! You have just made a,New Friend for Life. Thank you again and, God Bless. Your Friend, Patty McCoy
The result is simply amazing, all my silver are now shinny as new. I have used silver Polish, toothpaste, etc and none can deliver this result. Pretty amazing thank you very much.
When your all done cleaning your silver put 2 cups of flour into the solution, mix well, put in the oven for 25 min at 350 and you'll have biscuits for dinner. Cheers!
Thank you for reminding me how to do this. I used to do this exact thing years and years ago but my chains have been gold for years and they dont tarnish like silver but I got my old chains out to sell and I couldn't remember how to do this. Take care
@@turns_out_im_kevin my teenage daughter loves to do this now. I did my chains and now shes asked everyone in the family if they have any silver they need cleaning haha. Went and bought a big bad of each and a roll of foil think it might be a quiet day today after she gets back from school haha
Thank you. You just saved me $40 worth of jewellery cleaning solution since I just did it at home. My silver jewellery looks like I just bought them brand new. Oh, and as an experiment I added a bit of vinegar too. Sparkling ✨ ✨ 😊🤩
The water need to be boiling hot and the aluminium foil need to cover top and bottom and you need to rub it on both end's of the silverware in between the foil It does not even need salt.
I'm curious as you said you needed to be touching it if it's not a lite electrical current that is needed such as in electroplating. It would make sense as the salt is for conducting the current, the aluminum foil is your contact and your holding the silverware being an electrical current. In electroplating currents of only around 3 watts are used. The baking soda, that would be your deoxidizer that's activated and drawn to the items in contact with the current. If anyone tries this at home, just note that at least in my experience of electroplating, no more than 3-3.5 watts should be used so maybe a small watch battery could be used with the negative connected by wire to the tinfoil and the positive to the silverware. (sounds like an interesting experiment)but only a theory as I've never done this before. I'm no chemist but sounds logical. I'm interested in hearing what others think?
I have been cleaning silver with commercial cleaners for 51years. Works great! This procedure would take 51 years to clean my silver at this rate and it’s just as labor intensive. Haven’t got the patience for these home remedies!
This stuff actually really works. You just have to put the aluminum paper under underneath your item with hot water mix in the baking soda and salt and then just lay your item there and you will see the color change. I do it with my silver jewelry all the time.
use deionized or distilled water if available. if tap water is too hard in your areathat will definitely slow down the process. you might actually boil the water, in an aluminum or enameled pan or in tempered glass vessel also use some more foil to cover the cuttlery
No risk. I've done this many times. The only risk would be if there was any inlay in the silver like semi precious stones that might react to the solution. Or silver/brass pieces, etc.
OXIDATION: 2 Al(s) + 6 OH- (aq) ---> Al2O3(s) + 3 H2O (l) + 6 e-
REDUCTION: Ag2S(s) + 2 H2O (l) + 2 e- ---> 2 Ag(s) + H2S (aq) + 2 OH- (aq)
3 Ag2S(s) + 2 Al(s) + 3 H2O (l) ---> 6 Ag(s) + 3 H2S (aq) + Al2O3(s)
It needs metallic aluminum and an alkaline solution. Heat speeds up the reaction.
So salt is completely useless here, right?
/
This just gave me PTSD from Chem 2 in high school 😭😭
@@user-ec2kd8sz3t yes,sodium- and or potassiumchloride is useless
@@just_smile3960 I’m sorry to hear that. You want to talk about it?🤪
Play at 1.5X speed. You're welcome.
😂😂😂😂
Actually sounds like a normal Kiwi at 1.5
Oh thanks
Best advice ever
I did it three times the speed. He is a really relaxed dude! I wish I was like that .
6 years later you are still a life saver! I stupidly went swimming in a salt water pool with my brand new anniversary necklace and of course it tarnished. You saved me from having an awkward conversation with my partner! Thank you!
Experienced swimming in a pool w/out removing my silver necklace .. when I ot out of the pool, the silver is blackish ..learned the hard way cuz I have to have the necklace & pendant by the Jeweler ,,, thanks fir sharing
are you married to your partner yet or not ? Do you have se* before marriage with partner ?
I've just cleaned a bunch of silverware -- without salt. Just hot water, baking soda and aluminum foil. Looks beautiful!
salt will pit it unless completely dissolved
This process does work quite well, especially if you have a piece that is impossibly nasty with corrosion and has turned black (the cheaper the silver, the worse the tarnish is going to be!) Keep in mind that this process is pretty extreme in that it takes away ALL the tarnish, even the stuff that you want down in the little cracks and crevices of the design (the "patina") that gives depth to the pattern. (If it's flat silver, like a cup or something, no problem.) For patterned silver, it's going to look a bit "cold" I guess you'd say, and too-new. The best idea for these pieces is to first clean them, and then let them set around a few weeks to start tarnishing again, so you can use a more gentle process that will clean up the silver but leave the detail in the design.
When I did this on a number of different pieces, I found that this bath left some of my silver looking cloudy and gray looking instead of shiny silver. (Some pieces, but not all). If you get this, just re-clean your piece with something very lite like a "Silver Foam" that will make your piece shiny again (you've not "broken" the silver if you see this! You can always just let it re-tarnish and try again!)
One reason I found that the solution stops working (other than the water getting pretty nasty after a few pieces) is that the water cools off. Try adding more boiling hot water and see if that helps. And always remember with the foil: shiny side up! If you do it with the dull side up, it won't work.
Perfect thank you for this reply, I have piece made in 1800 that I want all the little cracks cleaned out. Thank you.
Hi I know you said cheap but Tiffany and co jewelry tarnishes really fast to which is annoying as it's dear
Thank you!!!
@@mentaljason o so how do I get rid of it? Got a Tiffany ring to and it's gone yellow and I've tried cleaning it over and over 😔
I am looking to do the lovely faceplate and silver on an Antique singer sewing machine and I like the patina and the darker part in the crevices and just shine up the upper part. Most people do not though and want them all shiny and one bright colour. Thank you
This REALLY does work!! I just did it to a badly tarnished silver necklace of mine and it's come out perfect, as good as new!! Plus I just saved myself 45 euro in the process, as I had taken it to a place only yesterday that specialises in jewellery repairs and cleaning to ask them if they could clean it and for how much. I baulked when the counter assistant said they could clean it but that it would cost me €45. In fairness, when I replied that I thought that was a lot and that I'd need to think about it, he did suggest that I could try soaking the necklace in bicarbonate of soda / baking soda at home myself and that this could work. I did try this suggestion but it didn't work. That's when I Googled "cleaning silver with bicarbonate of soda" and found this video. Thank you SO much!! I'm going to tell everyone I know about it. Thank you!
I had 3 silver rings that were so tarnished they'd become black! I tried commercial cleaners on them and they did nothing but make the black tarnish shiny. :( I just did this today and my rings are all silver and shiny again!! They look just like they day I received them. :D Thank you so much for posting this video!!
Darvit Ket
I did this too today with a pair of earrings they were black, I tried a cleaner I bought popped it in and shook it like it said to....nothing happened still blackened, came here to find a solution and voila I am now wearing what looks like brand new silver earrings again ! I’m amazed and pleased all at the same time, why this fun stuff wasn’t taught in science labs to kids is beyond me they would love the transformation 👌🏻
Just Need A Narrowboat 1a asAQasaqqqwwe
Stop having beach holidays to stop tarnishing your silverware
@@bigmort6916 because teachers were commercial pigs.
I'm soooooo pleased I found this link. Absolutely fantastic! Worked perfectly. Turned by 925 silver from a dull copper back to a perfect brand new looking silver ring again. Thank you so much!
Only works when touching the silver because the solution of baking soda and water + the foil is like a batteries negative charge while you provide the positive charge. You’re sending ions through you to the foil in the solution which the oxide layer on the silver is oppositely charged so it repels the oxide but maintains the silver without damaging it. However the tarnish is also silver, so you do lose a very minute amount of silver in the process.
Precisely.
Brilliant it works perfectly, I had a silver chain necklace that was black, within 10 minutes I got it shinny. Thank you for putting this up.
My pleasure 👍🏼
Thank you! This helped me clean a bracelet my mom bought for me in Mexico that I never thought I’d get clean!
WOW It actually worked!!! Just cleaned a pair of silver earrings using this method. Thanks for sharing!!!
👍⭐️Thank you!! Can you imagine how happy my 97 year old MeMa is gonna be when I tell her I’m coming over to clean ALL of her silver?!!! I WILL be her favorite forever & always. 😍💝🙏
Thank you, I thought I bought a fake ring when it started to tarnish. I was heart broken but this brought it back to its original shine.
I just tried this on some silver spoons I purchased. Worked like a charm! Used a green scrubs pad along the edges of the spoons to get the hard to reach stains. The spoons look brand new. Thank you so much for the video!
Silver forms a battery when touching aluminum with the soda being an electrolyte. When you lifted it you formed a better battery by forcing the current (and silver oxides) to flow out of the parts not touching the aluminum.
So... are you supposed to touch a part of the silver, with the other end touching the metal? Or just leave it in contact with the foil?
@@Gwinter452 Yes, you form part of the battery, that's my guess. But I'm not really sure exactly what is going on there.
My locket was so tarnished, i used boiling water, bicarbonate of soda (UK) & salt with the tin foil. And its never looked so clean. Thank you. Defiantly works! Thanks for sharing. :)
my pleasure
Just did this to clean up some sterling silver jewelry I picked up at an antique store. Worked pretty well.
Korean grandma says thank you. We watched and within 5 minutes she was praising you. Thank you!! She had tried everything else!
Hope it was fun
Tip for the day: speed it up to 1,5X
YES!! I does drone on a bit.
2x works too. He’s super chill.
@@Nassie54 This is true. He is super chill. I watched again and found his voice an method rather relaxing. Also the process works!
thanks for the support
2x
I just tried this on silverware over 50 years old….Perfect thank you
Thank you for this - I was able to clean eight silver dollars with this that were pretty tarnished. Like magic!
Wowwww i tried it on my bangle and ring....it worked in just 2 minutes....and now there is a great shine on my ring and bangle.....thank uuu sooo much sir for this great help
Thank you so much for the help! I had a 10 year old Tiffany necklace and it was super tarnished. In seconds, it looked brand new. The only weird thing is, the water started bubbling and I could smell this weird gas. If anyone tries this method, be careful not to breathe it in.
THe bubbling gas is pure hydrogen. Don't light a match
You're smelling the sulphur from the tarnish. It's fine.
corcaccia Bs. Millions of housewives would have blown themselves up if that were the case, especially in the old days when almost everybody smoked like a chimney. Mixing baking soda and water is hardly a new thing.
wow, thank u so much i actually tried this on some silver jewelry that tarnished due to a harsh soap i had used and had it sitting there for about a yr...i didnt throw it away because its a charm bracelette, and thank goodness this brought it back..thank u so much, have a blessed day :)
I've tried this method a few different ways to clean silver. What worked best for me was keeping the water boiling hot. It just cools too fast in a dish, and the reaction works best when it's very hot. I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom of a stainless steel pan, added the water and baking soda and a little salt, and then heated it to a low boil. The reaction wasn't super quick like yours because my grandmother's silverware had been quite abused and had a layer of sticky nastiness on it and brown gunk in many of the nooks and crannies. The treatment not only returned the tarnish to silver, but also loosened the gunk so I was able to easily brush it off. There was some crusty stuff left on the bottom of the stainless pan, but that came off with Bar Keeper's Friend, a mildly abrasive stainless cleaner. Next time I clean silver this way, I will try holding onto the other end of larger pieces to see if being grounded to me somehow makes a difference.
There are a couple other things I'd like to add. When the reaction is going quickly, it often releases hydrogen sulfide, a foul smelling gas with a distinctive rotten egg odor (which not everyone smells equally!). It's not particularly good for you, and it stinks, so you'll want to do this when you can have your windows open and blow the stink outside. If you have pet birds, you should do this silver treatment outside. The same is true for chemical silver cleaners that work quickly, like Tarn-x.
If possible, the silver should be given a light polish, afterwards, too. When silver is cleaned using this method or with chemicals like Tarn-x, it often leaves the silver looking kind of cloudy. The chemical reaction has returned the tarnish to silver, but the silver molecules on the surface aren't perfectly smooth because the tarnish reaction moved them. Polishing the silver smooths out the surface, making it shiny again and also making it less likely that it will tarnish again right away (unless you use your silverware on eggs).
Eggs???? For goodness sake, why not?!
@@jethrojackson2524 eggs are high in sulfur. That’s why the odor the silver releases reeks of sulfur when you convert the tarnish back to silver.
@@evilsharkey8954 Thanks hey. So the eggs will tarnish the silver with a fine layer of sulfur? I thought the tarnish was caused by oxidation. (contact with 02 in the air)
@@jethrojackson2524 surprisingly, the most common tarnish is a sulfur compound, silver sulfide. Eggs contain a lot of sulfur, so they speed up the tarnishing process. Sometimes there is also silver oxide, which is also black, and the chemicals that turn tarnish back to silver don’t work on it.
@@evilsharkey8954 Thank you dude. You have made me a more informed person.
Salt and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) are still chemicals of course, agreed though not harsh. What you do is convert water insoluble silver oxide (tarnish) to silver carbonate which is more soluble, its fairly quick because the alu foil is an electrode with the metal silver as the other electrode and warm water with salt is an electrolyte allowing electrons to flow for the electrochemical process to happen. A clever and mild and cheap method I fully agree! You may find adding a little lemon juice may help as citric acid is a mild organic acid and may assist dissolution of the silver oxide.
Would this method work to clean Nickel Silver? Or chemically would this only work on silver?
This is a correct explanation of the process. To further elaborate, the silverware doesn't need to touch the Aluminum foil, and water doesn't have to be boiling hot. This process works faster and more effectively on brass (copper) jewelry and takes a bit longer for silver. It can also be used to brighten and surface clean gold plated and rhodium plated jewelry.
Tarnish is silver sulfide.not oxide
Redcoat‘s Return I was wondering how it worked. Thanks
Brilliant! I'm sure for anyone who is talented in👨🏻🏫chemistry, this would be very basic, but for those of us for whom high school chemistry was 45+👵🏻 years ago, it's a lost art!
Thanks for the refresher course!👩🎓
Can’t wait to try this on my grandmas old silverware. This looks so easy and I have all the ingredients!!
I just scienced the shit out of my Saturday night with this video. All my silver is brand new!!! This works!!!👍
Pretty awesome little home trick! I was looking for something like this that is totally non-abrasive to help with old silver coins.. Not to eliminate the patina mind you, but to get rid of that awful white "fog" they sometimes get, which is neither attractive nor desirable... It worked like a charm! Thanks!
Nice to know. Thx
@@turns_out_im_kevin Yea it is a commemorative silver dollar for the Statue of Liberty, which my father left me when he passed.. I was totally upset to see its beautiful mirrored proof surfaces becoming cloudy with white fog.. It reminds me of cataracts! That is how awful it looked! But less than 5 mins in the solution with the aluminum foil and it was shining bright again! I wonder how many butlers and maids could have used this to polish their boss' silver, and avoided hours of hand polishing! YIKES!!
thank you, I just cleaned all my sister's jewelry as a gift and I really appreciate the advice
You don't need salt. You only need baking soda and aluminum foil in a plastic or glass container. Place the silverware on top of aluminum, add baking soda and then pour boiling water into the container. You may stir the water a little bit while it is bubbling hot and wait. The color will change instantly. So easy!
That salt makes everything react strong and faster. You don't need it but it helps.
Van I use baking powder
Will ceramic work?
I'm gonna make a video on doing this show y'all a much more efficient way to do this
James Carlson Hi, did you make the video?
I was skeptical at first but THIS WORKS. My only complaint is that when you add the hot water and everything fizzes it smells like rotten eggs lol. But 10/10 method would recommend.
Got hair bleach on my Pandora bracelet, so I tried this, it worked! Thanks 🤗
Had my sterling silver neckless for over 5 years and wore it everyday tarnished with periodic cleaning. Tried this method without the salt and had boiling hot water and looks better than it did brand new. If your silver is extremely tarnished, like my silver was, try mixing some baking powder with cool water to make a thick paste and polish. Rinse off with cool water and dry very thoroughly. Helpful video.
thanks
This method worked very well on my tarnished silver bracelet! I did however, rub some baking soda and iodized salt on my bracelet using my hands before dropping my bracelet on the foil a second time and it seemed to work even better. Thank you!
sometimes there is a large buildup of other chemicals other than the silver sulphide (silver tarnish). this process wont remove them - only the sulphur. So a bit of mild rubbing wont do much harm. be gentle as you dont want to scratch the surface
This is very effective process for turning blackened, bluished silver into white shining silver again!!!👌🏼 For gold too!!! Thank you! Highly recommended!
My pleasure
Tried this with my blackened sterling silver bangle and earring but i prepared water in a pot and allowed to near boiling. Separately i prepared the aluminum foil folded like a square pan then poured roughly equal amt baking soda and salt. I then placed the aluminum foil with salt and bp into the boiling water fully submerged then placed the items inside. I used a spoon to stir arpund and made sure the items were touching the aluminum foil and in a few minutes my jewelry were back to original color almost like how professional jewellers clean their sterling silver minus the harsh chemicals. I think it helped that the pot was still in the burnee so the temp was kept at boiling or really hot temp
Its working absolutely great for me, its simple and easy . I added a little lime juice in it and it works perfectly ,my mom's Sterling silver chain although its not quite dirty looks genuinely brand new now and my silver link chain also which i cannot brush off some black spots vanishes using this method.All i have to do is wait for around 4 hours then take it out and brush it off with detergent powder , amazing thank you
THANK YOU! Saves money and NO smelly chemicals.
..youre a smelly chemical
I cleaned up my silver Cross, very old Cross was really black. Now is shining beautifully! Thanks. Okay not eleven minutes but 12 hours.
I didn't bother with salt at all. Baking soda, aluminum foil lining (shiny side up) in aluminum bread pan for silverware. Very hot water, a few minutes past boil. Worked beautifully.
Hara Harding Thank you!
This works so well. Use an old toothbrush with this solution on crevices in silver jewelry and it will look amazing!! Thanks!!
good idea
It worked on my old 1800’s spoons!! Nice, thank you 😊👍
Wow! That’s a lot of spoons 😀
Lol not 1800 spoons, the year(s) the spoons were made in silly lol 😆
Removing the patina from old/valuable items acrually devalues them so youre only suppose to use this on newer or cheaper stuff.
My Pandora bracelet needed a good cleaning, Toothpaste absolutely worked wonders, worked amazingly No BS... Thank you for the informative video
Thank you! it worked for my bracelet!
Wow thanks I just tried this and it worked great! I tried mine with baking soda and hot water only though in aluminum foil
Thank you sir and I am headed to the kitchen to polish my silver. You saved me money. 😊
It's "AMAZING!" Now my silver ring looks like the new one. Thank you so much.
If I remember my Chen lessons...This process is a chemical transfer from the silver to the aluminum the salt helps the conductivity of the water. Rubbing the flatware probably slows the process. Keep the item in the bath. Nice video. Good results.
JoeB
Really amazing! The best video in this category, and I have watched a few before trying on my silverware. It worked brilliantly! Thanks a lot for the tip. I had this really lovely necklace that was totally black and it now looks brand new.
It's amazing I cleaned 74 antique spoons with this method
Thank you so much, my bracelet looks brand new now :)
my pleasure
Oh thanks! Just started wearing silver jewellery from being a gold wearer all my life. Didn’t know how to clean silver
Keep a little ball of rolled up aluminum foil to use as a scrubber for those deep crevasses that sometimes make up the design of the silverware. The foil ball will react with the cleaner and make it easier to remove.👍🏻
Thank you, this helped with my rings. I can always count on TH-cam videos for help when it's needed.
oo thank you so much it's really work. I'm not uses baking soda just use the cooking soda amazing work thank you very much 😊😊
was just able to fix a silver bracelet that i had gotten wet with this method! thanks a ton and it took less than 10 minutes
Years ago I bought and aluminum sheet , it had holes in it from a company advertising on TV. It was pure aluminum and all you had to do was put it in a non-metal bowl or basin, add Calgon water softener and throw your silverware in it. I remember that after a while the aluminum plate became tarnished. I had to scrub it periodically with a stainless steel scrubber and it reactivated the aluminum. All I did was put it back in the bowl and everything started working again.
I own about a kilo of sterling silver that I adore. But absolutely hate cleaning it! So I can not wait to try this. I usually use the cream cleaners and cover myself neck and a face in blacked cream yuck. Then I’m wearing my freshly cleaned pieces and I’m turning black through the day. As I didn’t fully remove the tarnish remover 🤣so annoying when this happens I’m so proud of my collection and want it to sparkle. Watching this is so so fascinating I’m eagerly awaiting tarnishing to remove with this method. Sad I know but I’m fed up paying out for all these different cleaners for my silver and my copper pieces etc/ thank you for sharing
With that much silver to clean, you might try a trick that museums do when they have antique sterling on public display: find a silversmith who can safely varnish it for you. It's covered with a clear coating of some sort that mostly prevents the silver from tarnishing. You might have to run over it with a silver cloth occasionally just to be 100% but that will save you a lot of work.
Also, think about a rotation by which you get EVERYthing clean once, and then on a weekly rotation, go over a portion of the collection with something like a Sunshine Cloth (look it up - they are miraculous!! I keep 4 or so around all the time!) to keep them bright, that way you are doing just a few pieces at a time and not killing a whole day polishing silver. If you have a big event coming up, THEN you get to polish it bigtime, but a polishing cloth like the Sunshine Cloth (I'm not a rep, just a very satisfied user!) should do for weekly maintenance of your collection, especially as it grows.
redpiano1 thank you for your reply I shall have a search for it. At the moment I’m testing out some various ways I’ve been looking at and learning what works best for you me. Thank you again
Yes, this does work quite well to clean your silver items, however, what n one's video shows is what happens afterwards, especially if they are not dried properly. By properly, I mean THOROUGHLY DRIED. I set mine freshly cleaned items on the tile counter in my smallest bathroom, set up my blow dryer on low heat to dry them for about an hour to make sure. This seems to work best to keep the tarnish from coming back worse than it was before, faster than ever before. IMHO...Thanks, hope it helps.
Karen Kelleher I
After cleaning rinse with natural lemon juice this will help with that.
Karen Kelleher would leaving it outside in the sun work too?
Thank you so much.. Am doing it now and my silver ware back into shining shimmering splendid😍
Very nice tip! I have to do a ton of old silverware today. Adding some extra tips for viewers:
1. Speed up video to 1.5 speed.
2. Tear foil in places, makes some holes, works better for this chemistry.
3. Use rock salt (purple-ish color) which works faster apparently.
4. Use boiling water and stir it with a spoon.
tried that - cool
Tore a piece of aluminum foil shiny side up. Put in one Tbsp baking soda. A few shakes of table salt. Dumped earrings and a ring in. Poured very hot water from microwave in there. Fizzed. After fizzing stopped removed, rinsed, dried. Like new. Yay
Love how he said the shiny part works the best it’s the same on both sides shiny or the dull side doesn’t matter
this fixed my tiffany necklace!!!! love this
It removes the tarnish a lot better and faster if you add vinegar, and use BOILING water. First of all, you have to have the baking soda covering the entire bottom of the pan, and then the silver lying on top of the baking soda, and then a layer of baking soda covering the top of the silver. Put the baking soda with the silver in the dish ahead of time DRY, then pour in the BOILING water and the vinegar and salt. If you would have done that you do not need to stir the water. And, of course, the sufide (black tarnish) on the silver moves from the silver and attaches to the aluminum, through electrolysis created by the water, vinegar, baking soda and salt.
Thank you so much i restored a ring it worked perfectly!!!
Thank you very much! It totally works like magic, so I tried to clean the gold-filled jewelry, and it came out clean and sparkly
The side of foil does not matter
Shiny or dull its the same thing
The difference in appearance between dull and shiny is due to the foil manufacturing process. In the final rolling step, two layers of foil are passed through the rolling mill at the same time. The side coming in contact with the mill's highly polished steel rollers becomes shiny.
Are the rollers perhaps lubricated and might thereby impart a film of oil?
whoa whoa whoaaaaa it most definitely matters -- the shiny side of the aluminum will have a much better contact with the silver than the dull side due to it's surface area, ensuring a much more efficient exchange of ions. the deoxidation will be more evenly uniform, as opposed to using the dull side. for example, a flat piece of silver placed on the 'non-milled' side risks appearances of 'hotspots,' spots where the reaction was stronger or weaker than the surrounding area. it's also easier to gauge the amount of work that resulted by looking at the deposition of the shiny side vs. the dull side.
now here im just gonna theorize a bit -- silver has a high thermal conductivity, yet peculiar, as it will transfer it's heat to the aluminum as fast as it can during the duration of contact.. aluminum also has a high thermal conductivity, less than that of silver, but greater than that of the water, which provides heat to the metals, surrounding air, and the container, via convection... lots of wasted heat.. yada yada in short, the shiny side provides better contact to the silver, ensuring better conduction of heat f/ the aluminum, to the silver, and due to silver's tendency to be cooler, the temperature difference alone warrants a heat exchange between the two, less thermal waste, the water should stay hot longer, than if the dull side were up.
both sides do work (assuming the dull side is not insulated, and shares electrical conductivity w/ the silver) - however, this is a process called ionization - and because it's so straightforward, i cant agree with, "shiny or dull its the same thing."
the dull side will not yield the SAME result as the shiny side, nor will it, ever.
also, regarding the aluminum foil manufacturing...
many aluminum foil manufacturers wax/insulate the dull side, especially those that press their logos, designs, etc., onto that dull side... and many use poly- rollers, instead of polished steel, too... 'twould be a shame if a printing die were to stick to the dull side of an aluminum ribbon/leaf due to static electricity just before it hits the rollers, im sure you agree!
Thanks for sharing. It's a rather long process especially if there are many pieces. I didn't have the patience but they look much better than before.
Damn okay this is actually the most genuine video out there!👍
thanks for saying :-)
Thank you mate!! Worked like a charm ... best thing is that I get to re-use the aluminum foil after use.👍
I love hearing the birds in the background :)
Thanks so much !!!!!! It really works!!!!! Pandora bracelet was black and now brand new!!!!!!!!
Quick question so if I decided to use this on a sterling silver necklace that has a resin or gemstone plus pearl type of stone that can't be covered, will it get ruined by any of these materials?🤔
~please respond
Yes
@@feedwinnie alright thx
I have watched several of these Videos this evening Lovey and this is the BEST ONE YET ! It's so easy and quick and simple . I like the few items used to get the job done. It's just wonderful. Thank you for sharing and I will be sure to watch for more Videos from you for other ideas and tip's!! You have just made a,New Friend for Life. Thank you again and,
God Bless.
Your Friend,
Patty McCoy
Thanks for saying. All the best
I absolute love it. It actually works legit. Thanks NZ Coins your a genius!
The result is simply amazing, all my silver are now shinny as new. I have used silver Polish, toothpaste, etc and none can deliver this result. Pretty amazing thank you very much.
When your all done cleaning your silver put 2 cups of flour into the solution, mix well, put in the oven for 25 min at 350 and you'll have biscuits for dinner. Cheers!
Biscuits of tarnish, Nice!
Funny knob!
I bought some antique spoons and forks today.. going to try this now.. thanks 😄👍🏼
Thank you for reminding me how to do this. I used to do this exact thing years and years ago but my chains have been gold for years and they dont tarnish like silver but I got my old chains out to sell and I couldn't remember how to do this.
Take care
No problem.
@@turns_out_im_kevin my teenage daughter loves to do this now. I did my chains and now shes asked everyone in the family if they have any silver they need cleaning haha. Went and bought a big bad of each and a roll of foil think it might be a quiet day today after she gets back from school haha
How did it go?
I tried it and really works in seconds . Thank you
+Clair Meli you're very welcome!
Thank you so much! Just used it on my silver jewellery, after cleaner did absolutely nothing on them, and it worked so well. Very stinky though!
No one mentioned that. I did this and my first thought was where is that smell coming from.
🤯 I’m shook.
This is super helpful. Thank you.
WOW! Never knew that! Thank you so much for this video!!!
you are welcome - I have made a few more also.
This worked amazingly well… I used bits of foil yo scrub the glass and bowl and that helped a lot … many thanks
Chemisty is amazing
Thank you. You just saved me $40 worth of jewellery cleaning solution since I just did it at home. My silver jewellery looks like I just bought them brand new. Oh, and as an experiment I added a bit of vinegar too. Sparkling ✨ ✨ 😊🤩
The water need to be boiling hot and the aluminium foil need to cover top and bottom and you need to rub it on both end's of the silverware in between the foil It does not even need salt.
Salt causes it to form an acid, no need for the scrubbing then. Just dont use it on your coins, they will be worthleas
@@needmoreshit Do you mean just not to use the salt in the mixture and just baking soda that it will be all right? and not harm the coin?
Wow! I can't believe this worked! Amazing!
believe it! it's science :-) thanks for watching and the great comment
I'm curious as you said you needed to be touching it if it's not a lite electrical current that is needed such as in electroplating. It would make sense as the salt is for conducting the current, the aluminum foil is your contact and your holding the silverware being an electrical current. In electroplating currents of only around 3 watts are used. The baking soda, that would be your deoxidizer that's activated and drawn to the items in contact with the current. If anyone tries this at home, just note that at least in my experience of electroplating, no more than 3-3.5 watts should be used so maybe a small watch battery could be used with the negative connected by wire to the tinfoil and the positive to the silverware. (sounds like an interesting experiment)but only a theory as I've never done this before.
I'm no chemist but sounds logical. I'm interested in hearing what others think?
scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/tarnish.html
What the hell???
I have been cleaning silver with commercial cleaners for 51years. Works great! This procedure would take 51 years to clean my silver at this rate and it’s just as labor intensive. Haven’t got the patience for these home remedies!
This is oddly satisfying.
Jason Connors I'm here because people handing cutlery gives me the tingles
KamKam me, to
The First Kot ;
In times like these watch satisfying things :) bringing you back in time to 4 years ago
@Melodic Zooo where do you find that?
This stuff actually really works. You just have to put the aluminum paper under underneath your item with hot water mix in the baking soda and salt and then just lay your item there and you will see the color change. I do it with my silver jewelry all the time.
+Liquideze - actually it doesn't need holding. The silver must come in contact with the aluminum though.
Good its working
@@neetusharma8645 great news - :-)
I’ve got a solid sterling silver belt buckle. I’m looking forward to trying it out!
use deionized or distilled water if available. if tap water is too hard in your areathat will definitely slow down the process.
you might actually boil the water, in an aluminum or enameled pan or in tempered glass vessel
also use some more foil to cover the cuttlery
good tips - thanks
Oh May God! I just spent 4 hours or more polishing my silver. And still there are stuff stains, Thank you.
That's really freaking cool. gomma try this. there's no risk to the silver right?
No risk. I've done this many times. The only risk would be if there was any inlay in the silver like semi precious stones that might react to the solution. Or silver/brass pieces, etc.
Fantastic! I will be treating my Great Grandmother's silver. thank you!
This works like a charm!