Plum Creek Traditions: April 2012

After watching entirely too much “Antiques Roadshow” and “American Pickers”, my mom and I had decided to go scour the local Goodwill in search of buried treasure. We were in search of glassware, silver items, pictures, books, and furniture. We scored! We found a set of 7 silver goblets and a few serving trays for next to nothing. There is pretty much nothing wrong with them except needing a good amount of TLC. They were tarnished beyond belief. I have never owned real silver items before in my life. I knew that you could purchase tarnish remover, so I went in search of it. A small black bottle of the stuff was about $5-$6! Since the bottle was black, you can’t see what the product looks like and there is nothing listed on the bottle about what was in it. That worried me, especially with all of warnings on the bottle about the potential dangers of the stuff. I wasn’t prepared to pay that much money for something when I didn’t even know what I was getting. I headed home empty handed.

Luckily I did some research with my empty hands when I got home. Guess what I found out? I could totally do it on my own at home with safe products I already had. Free? Yes please! Safe? Heck yeah!

Plus, you can drag the kids into the kitchen for a nice sneaky chemistry lesson. The foil will react with the baking soda to remove the tarnish from the silver. I also found that the foil picked up the tarnish that was removed. It is very cool and very interesting. It also produces a slight sulfur smell because the tarnish is sulfur based.

Here’s what you need:

A kitchen pot big enough to hold your items or at least big enough to hold enough water to cover your items. (It CANNOT be stainless steel or copper. It will react badly with the silver.)

A bucket (If you don’t have a pot that isn’t stainless or big enough to fit your items, you can use a plastic bucket to put the silver in.)

Salt

Baking soda

Aluminum foil

Tongs

A soft clean cloth

Dish soap

Water

Directions:

1. Wash your silver in dish soap and water to remove all of the dirt and oils.

2. Take some foil and put it in the bottom of your pan (or bucket if you are using one). It doesn't need to be perfect; it just needs to be in there.

3. Put your silver in the pot. Try to make it so that all of the silver is at least touching the aluminum. I did mine in a bucket so I did a layer of silver, another layer of foil, and then more silver.

4. Now in your pot you want to fill it up with enough water to cover your items. If you are using the bucket to submerge your silver, just fill a pot with enough water to cover the items in your bucket.

5. Into the water add the salt and baking soda. There isn't really a set amount. Just try to do 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of baking soda for every quart of water. Like I said, it’s not a big deal if it’s a little more or a little less.

6. Put the pot on the stove, turn the heat up to medium-high, and stir to dissolve the salt and baking soda.

7. Let it sit on the heat until the tarnish is almost off of the silver. (If you are using a bucket like I did, once the water/baking soda/salt mixture is boiling, just carefully pour it into the bucket over the silver. Let it sit until the tarnish is almost off of the silver.)

8. Turn off the heat.

9. VERY carefully use the tongs to pull out a piece of silver. It will be very hot. Immediately use a soft cloth to dry and polish the piece. The rest of the tarnish should come off on the cloth.

10. Keep repeating step 9 until you've dried and polished every piece.

11. To keep from having to do this all of the time, just make sure to use a soft cloth and wipe down your silver every so often. That’s it!