Silver candelabra

I bought some a couple years ago on recommendations from here and found it to be a complete waste of time on pieces that had tarnish

 

Hi,
I use Wrights all of the time of course mine never gets tarnished that badly. I have other tricks for cleaning really badly tarnished items.
greg

 

I buy sterling holloware and have a large aluminum canning tub dedicated for this. I bring water to a boil, take off fire, throw in a handful of baking soda and soak the recent purchase. [a stock pot lined with aluminum foil also works but it leaves a residue and as always NEVER hot water knives or soldered joints.] I can remove as much tarnish and leave as much patina as I chose. Depending on the nature of the piece, high relief die-cast or lost wax cast, I may have to take a soft brush, and a little extra baking soda, and remove tarnish in recesses. Once I have reached the level of patination I want, I take a jeweler's cloth, with jeweler's rouge on it, and buff it to a high shine. And finally I use dish detergent to remove any residual chemicals and dry with a linen glass cloth. If you have never used the aluminum/baking soda technique before, practice on somethings inexpensive first. Also, if you get a sterling piece with some of those nasty black splotches, burnishing with the end of a smooth piece of wood, like a kitchen spoon, with baking soda will usually erase them. The key is to not replace the old splotches with new scratches. If you know how to polish sterling, you can pick up pieces on the cheap because people will pass over pieces with "silver disease". Polishing silver is an art. I give this info from my own personal experience. Start with some inexpensive silver plate you don't mind ruining. Because, until you master the process, you may damage pieces. Be careful. Just my 2¢.

 

I use this for smaller pieces, but just plain dry baking soda, rubbed on the piece, does wonders. Might take too much to do a large piece like that, but you could rub some on the bottom where the mark is to see it better.

 

However one wants to treat their silver and silverplate is their business, if you like it tarnished, then leave it, but know that in the long run, it is not good for the metal; if you want to use certain cleaning methods on your silver, then do so, but care should be taken in recommending those methods to others. Personally, would not use chemical dips or the aluminum foil method - too much experience with resulting damage, nor would I use toothpaste or baking soda for polishing.

Have posted links to Jeff Herman's site many times before, and will continue to do so - there is valuable information there from a skilled and respected silversmith, restorer and conservator (that said, I've been known to use products he doesn't care for).

Silver Care Guide: https://www.hermansilver.com/care.htm

Silver Polish Abrasion Ratings: https://www.hermansilver.com/silver-polish-abrasion-ratings.htm

~Cheryl

 

"but care should be taken in recommending those methods to others."

I believe that I have included multiple warnings in my explanation above. Thank you for pointing that out.