Professional Care

If you have heavily tarnished silver jewelry and there is no time to clean them, find a professional silver jewelry cleaning services to do the job for you. Old and fragile or valuable jewelry need to be handled by a professional silver jewelry cleaner.

Avoid Exposure to Harmful Materials

When your jewelry gets into contact with domestic chemicals, chlorinated water, sweat, rubber, or any other materials that contain sulfur such as mayonnaise, eggs, onions, mustard, latex, wool. Such materials cause corrosion and tarnishing, so it’s essential to remove your jewelry whenever you are doing household tasks.

Exposure to direct sunlight causes silver to tarnish, so it’s necessary to remove your jewelry when swimming, sunbathing or doing dishes. Cosmetics, lotions, spray and hair products, or perfumes are not friendly to silver and will speed up tarnishing. This is the reason why have to avoid exposing your jewelry to such materials for it to last.

Store Silver Jewelry Properly

Since exposing jewelry to air tarnishes it, when storing silver, should be stored in airtight plastic bags. These bags are also anti-tarnish making it a great preventative measure that makes your jewelry to last even for a decade. Don’t keep several jewelry pieces in one pocket, as silver is a soft metal so the pieces can scratch against other thus causing damage. Chain bracelets should remain unclasped or unhooked in their storage to prevent scratching. If you cannot use plastic bags ensure that the place of storage has low humidity. You can also use a piece of chalk, silica gel or a pack of activated charcoal in the storage area to reduce tarnishing.

Polishing the Silver Jewelry

Silver polishing works quite well if the tarnish is not too much. Polishing is also the best method to clean oxidized silver because you can easily see the deliberately tarnished areas. Silver get scratched easily because it is a soft metal. Use a special silver cloth to polish your items. A microfiber, lint-free flannel, or any other soft, nonabrasive fabric can be used too. Paper towels shouldn’t be used to clean silver jewelry because they contain fibers which can scratch silver.

Detailed Cleaning

While polishing, ensure you are using long back-and-forth motions that mirror the silver’s grain. Don’t rub in circles, because this will magnify any little scratches. Also, be sure to change to different sides of the cloth from time to time to avoid putting the tarnish back on your silver. To get into small and detailed areas use a Q-tip. However, you should be cautious about silver-plated items, because excessive polishing gets rid of plating depending on the width, and it can also leave the pieces even worse.

Conclusion

After using a cleaner, ensure you thoroughly rinse the silver jewelry with a lot of water. You can also clean it using a damp cloth. This is important especially for more detailed or scratched pieces because polish may stick in the small crevices and harden. Dry your jewelry with a microfiber cloth to prevent forming of white water spot stains.