DIY Silver Cleaning: A Complete Guide
Do you own any silver? It’s one of the noble metals which investors use to protect against inflation. Buying silver can offer an inflation hedge. You can easily buy silver from a precious metals investment dealer or store it in a silver IRA account.
Owning silvers has benefits, but you have to deal with a few drawbacks. Unlike gold, silver can react with certain chemicals like sulfur compounds, which tarnishes its appearance. If you’re dealing with tarnished silver, here’s how you can get its shine back.
The 5 Steps To Clean Silver
This 5 step process is great for cleaning silver items and bullions. However, using this method, the silver can get slightly abraded. For cleaning silver, you need to have the following items:
- Aluminum foil
- Pan or container
- Water
- Baking soda
Step 1: Lining The Container With Aluminum
First, take the container and line it with aluminum foil. Make sure to use a large enough container to place the silver item without any difficulty.
Step 2: Inserting The Silver
Second, insert the silver item into the container. Your silver item should touch the foil wrapping but not anything else.
Step 3: Boiling the Water
Next, add water into the container and bring it to a boil. Add the baking soda to the water. Use safety precautions while adding baking soda to cause the water to foam. Keep the ratio of baking soda and water to about 1 cup per gallon.
Step 4: Removing the Silver
Let the silver sit for a minute in the boiling water, and then remove it using tongs. If the silver is heavily worn out, you might need to repeat the process a few more times.
Step 5: Wiping Silver
After taking out the silver from the container, use a soft cloth to clean the powdery residue of it. The tarnished layer will be removed, but the silver might have abrasions because of the process.
Silver Polishing
Polishing silver is a great way to bring back its shine. You can use a soft cloth and a little bit of elbow grease to make it shine, but you can also use more effective polishing products for your convenience.
Before polishing them, make sure the product is safe for polishing silver. If you’re cleaning silver jewelry, it could be made using sterling silver. It is an alloy of silver and copper. Get your item checked by a local jeweler before polishing it yourself.
If you want to keep silver secure, contact Orion Metal Exchange. We are reliable precious metal storage companies that can offer secure vault storage for silver. We can assist you in determining which precious metal investment choice is the best fit for you. We can also set up a silver IRA account if you need one.
You can also buy silver or gold bullion coins from us online. To learn more about our services, please contact us.
