Cleaning of silverware at home

Since ancient times, silver was not only a precious metal, but also a common material for making jewelry and household items. In today's world, silver is an important participant in scientific and technological progress, it is part of many technically non-interchangeable alloys and is used in its pure form in high-tech products, thanks to its high heat and electrical conductivity.



By the way, our ancestors also used thermal conductivity of silver, so that the hot tea quickly cooled down, a silver spoon was placed in the cup. The disinfecting properties of silver were also known from ancient times. Most of the church utensils were made of silver and the healing properties of holy water are largely due to the content of silver ions in it.

Unfortunately, silver has a tendency to darken with time. You need to know how to properly care for silver. It depends on many factors. For example, from the humidity of the room, where it is stored. Darkens silver with constant contact with the skin, and the speed of darkening is individual, for someone silver can not change colors for years, someone darkens in almost a matter of days.

Most often it speaks of health problems. Also, silver can lose its shine and color when it comes into contact with cosmetics, especially those containing salts or sulfur ions. Then the products are covered with a touch of silver sulphide. The color of this coating varies from pale yellow to black. Accelerates the darkening of silver contact with rubber, household gas, onions, egg yolk, some cleansers and table salt. You need to know how to properly care for silver.

For cleaning silver, there are a lot of newest chemicals, but many of them are not cheap and are not sold in every hardware store, so consider those funds that can be purchased at any pharmacy.

Silver products should not be subjected to aggressive cleaning with various scarring means, because silver is very soft metal, and with silver-plated products, with increased zeal, you can remove the whole layer of silver in time.

Table silver should be washed immediately after use in a solution of baking soda, fifty grams per liter of water, after which dry with a soft cloth.

To return ornaments the former shine will help and sodium hypo-sulfite photographic. After washing the jewelry with detergent solution, it is necessary to wash the product with a solution of twenty grams of hyposulfite per one hundred milliliters of water.

It is well-known and positively influenced on ammonia by silver ammonia. For cleaning, you can prepare an aqueous solution, two tablespoons of liquid ammonia per liter of water. For the convenience of washing, the solution can be made slightly soapy, or to enhance the effect, add a little hydrogen peroxide. Especially contaminated products can be lowered into the solution and allowed to lie a little in it. After the procedure, we wipe the silver with a damp rag.

If radical cleaning is inevitable, you can try to make a decent abrasive at home. Lazy people, of course, can use ordinary cleaning powder. Those who care about silver products at least as a memory are recommended to mix the following components: water, ammonia and tooth powder in a ratio of 5: 2: 2. The resulting paste can be cleaned, for example, chains. After cleaning, the product must be rinsed with warm water.

A warmed 6% solution of vinegar will help you get rid of one more scourge - a touch of mold on silver products. It is enough to rub it with a soft cloth.
And finally, in order to keep silverware as long as possible its original appearance, it is necessary to store and operate them correctly. Keep them in a dry place in cases with soft upholstery. During household work or applying cosmetics, remove those ornaments. And then they will continue to please you for a long time.

From the article "Cleaning products from silver at home", we learned how to clean silverware so that they could preserve their natural appearance and know how to take care of it properly.