Thread: A better way of removing tarnish?

I just came across a mention online talking about removing tarnish from silver by placing the item in boiling water along with baking soda and aluminum foil.

"The way it works is that the sodium carbonate and the aluminium react, because aluminium is more reactive than silver, and the reaction grabs an oxygen molecule from the silver oxide, which is the tarnish on silver, turning it back into silver and oxidises the aluminium, turning it into aluminium oxide (which is why if you use foil the foil ends up all crumbly). Sodium carbonate is more reactive than sodium bicarbonate so the reaction cleans the silver more effectively."

I was just wondering if anybody has tried this with razors, if it works on steel and gold, it may be a nice way to keep from losing that gold wash.

Not sure how well the scales would react to be in a pot of boiling water though - surely that depends on scale material, and how you suspend it in the pot (i.e. scales on the bottom of the pot making direct contact with the heat may melt to celluloid or plastics scales).

Interesting though.

Mark

sodium carbonate is a acid...mild though it may be it can etch. The cleaning process you found leaches the oxides off the item. If you were to look at where the tarnish was before you would still see where it had been. Every dip I have ever seen corrodes the surface over time.

This method is specific to silver tarnish. Whether it pits steel I don't know. It's not going to work on chrome, nickel, or gold. Pure gold does not tarnish, but can collect surface scratches that dull the appearance until polished. The gold-colored decoration on blades may or may not be pure gold, an alloy of gold, or a gold-colored coating. (Titanium nitride is used on drill bits, and has a very nice gold color with excellent wear resistance.)

What about using Wright's Silver Polish? It's a tarnish remover, and it works great on silver stuff. Been using it all my life. (Disclaimer: I recently tried it on a blued-looking Case Imp and it didn't do anything.)

Silver is a different animal and that method won't work on steel because of the greedyness of steel to the oxides. Silver will give them up easier. Silver polish won't work either. You need a polish specific to other metals including steel.