Annelie Neumann

March 4, 2022, 10:36 am | Read time: 5 minutes

Items and cutlery made of silver are anything but easy to care for–quite the opposite. Behind their shine lies a lot of effort. Unfortunately for their owners, this shine is not eternal. The culprit is a chemical reaction. Even mere contact with air, which contains hydrogen sulfide and oxygen, causes silver items to react. The result: an unsightly black patina of silver sulfide forms on the silver in a short time. The silver shine becomes a thing of the past. However, some home remedies can help clean tarnished silver.

Can you prevent silver from tarnishing?

Unfortunately, you cannot prevent this reaction and the common tarnishing or oxidizing of silver, but you can delay it. “For jewelry, the advice is: wear, wear, wear, because this usually cleans the piece by itself. The same applies to silverware: the more it is used, the less it tarnishes,” recommends organizing coach Esther Lübke from the team “Ärmel-Hoch” when asked by myHOMEBOOK. After use, however, you should definitely wash your silverware by hand. Cleaning in the dishwasher damages silver spoons, forks, and knives.

Also interesting: These things should never be cleaned in the dishwasher

If you want to store your silver, you should do so as sealed as possible to prevent the reaction with oxygen and hydrogen sulfide. Wrap your silverware individually in napkins, velvet, or aluminum foil. According to Lübke’s experience, velvet has proven particularly effective.

Another tip from the expert: “I always put one or two pieces of school chalk in the drawer (a tip from my great-grandmother) and imagine it takes longer for the silver to darken again. A small dish of salt would probably have the same effect.” Indeed, both the chalk and the salt draw moisture from the air. Therefore, you should regularly replace the chalk and salt.

More on the topic

Remove water stains and scratches, polish… 6 Practical Tricks to Make Your Wooden Furniture Look New Again

Good to Know Simple Trick Can Reduce Ice Buildup in the Freezer

Properly cleaning tarnished silver

The most important rule when cleaning tarnished silver: Clean your silver items gently! This is especially true for items with thin coatings or delicate jewelry. It’s easy for something to break or even be “polished through.”

Esther Lübke therefore advises using a silver polishing cloth instead of an aggressive silver bath. When cleaning silver, make sure that pearls, gemstones, or jewels do not come into contact with the silver polishing cloth. “They don’t like it at all and may ‘thank’ you with damage, discoloration, or etching. Never put jewelry with stones or pearls in a silver bath!”

Also interesting: Removing surface rust in the stainless steel kitchen

Which home remedies are suitable?

Ash, baking soda, beer, liquid soap, raw potatoes, sour milk, or toothpaste: The list of potential home remedies that are supposed to make tarnished silver shine again is long. “I clean robust rings and chains with toothpaste and an old toothbrush. This way, you can get into all the small corners and chain links,” the expert reveals to myHOMEBOOK.

Cleaning silver with toothpaste

1. Apply a small amount of toothpaste to the tarnished silver piece.
2. If necessary, use an old toothbrush to apply the toothpaste optimally.
3. Let the toothpaste sit for a while.
4. Rinse the item thoroughly with water.
5. Dry it carefully.

To restore the shine to tarnished silverware, bowls, and candlesticks, Esther Lübke recommends the “aluminum foil trick.”

Cleaning silver with the “aluminum foil trick”

The reactivity of silver can fortunately also be reversed and used to clean tarnished silver. An electrochemical cleaning removes the black patina of silver sulfide. The principle behind it: When tarnished silver, i.e., silver sulfide, comes into contact with a less noble metal like aluminum, it reacts and turns back into silver.

Instead of an aggressive silver dip from the drugstore, the expert recommends cleaning tarnished silver with the “aluminum foil trick”:

“I still consider the aluminum foil trick to be very good and, above all, more environmentally and health-friendly. These professional silver baths are really very aggressive and anything but ‘eco.’ However, with this method, you must ensure that knife blades–if they are made of stainless steel–are not placed in the salt bath. They can start to rust or tarnish very quickly.”

1. Prepare a solution of salt (5 tablespoons) and boiling water (1 liter).
2. Pour this solution into a suitable glass or high-quality plastic container.
3. Place strips or small pieces of aluminum foil in the solution.
4. Put your tarnished silver items in the solution. Make sure all parts come into contact with the aluminum foil. Since sulfur oxide is released during this reaction, it may smell unpleasantly like rotten eggs.
5. Let the items sit for about 5 minutes.
6. Rinse the cleaned silver items thoroughly.
7. Dry them carefully.