Silver is named as the queen of metals absolutely rightly because it is second noblest metal after gold, the king, as both these metals do not oxidize or corrode easily. But, there is a certain period of time after which your silver articles and jewellery will start looking duller. Silver looks captivating only up till it holds its shine and colour. Once it starts looking dull, slowly losing its shine, you won’t like to wear your jewellery or showcase your silverware.
What do you do then? Get into a store to have your silver polished and shining again? Well, probably that is only what one would generally do. But, what if we told you that you can shine your silver easily on your own!? Yes, it’s true. Let’s take a look.
Keeping silver clean with a polishing cloth
If you don’t want to lose out on your silver’s shine, all you need to do is keep them clean and polished with a polishing cloth on a consistent basis. Silver can get dirty and tarnished from handling and everyday wear; and this is why the metal requires a little more maintenance than usual. Also, silver reacts with oxygen and sulphur in the air, gradually tarnishing as the sulphur becomes bound to the surface of silver. This is why you must always keep your silver covered in cotton and placed in an appropriate box when not in use. Also make sure to keep your silver completely dry before packing it as silver can react with moisture and water too to cause tarnishing. But, if you regularly use your silver, you can prevent and limit tarnishing and staining by regularly cleaning it with a polishing cloth. A polishing cloth is one that has two layers – the inside layer containing special chemicals to whiten silver, and the outer layer that is used for buffing. One such polishing cloth can last for dozens of cleaning applications.
Serious cleaning?
Now that you have come up to this page, we can imagine that you may have already tarnished quite some of your silver pieces by now. If this is really the case, where you have neglected your silver cleaning techniques since the time you had your silver, and now have ended up with quite some tarnished silver articles, then you will some serious cleaning techniques. You will need something more thorough and more efficient than a simple polishing cloth. You can then consider getting in touch with a silver store to have your jewellery and articles cleaned using an ultrasonic cleaner. An ultrasonic cleaner requires an ultrasonic cleaning tank filled up with an appropriate cleaning solution. The cleaning tank emits high frequency sound waves, creating a scrubbing action within the fluid. This method will rapidly remove contaminants from silver, without damaging the finish on the metal.
What shouldn’t you do?
In order to not having your silver articles and jewellery scratched and damaged, avoid using any toothbrushes or any object with bristles to clean. Silver is a very soft metal, and using any such brushes and bristles will only cause scratches, and that too permanent ones!
Another important thing you should note is that sterling silver and stainless steel are two completely different metals. Many people consider them to be similar and treat them the similar way. They may also consider washing them together, but doing so will only result in chemical reactions, leaving silver jewellery with black marks.
Never use soaps containing phosphate or off-the-shelf consumer-grade silver cleaning solutions. Use only appropriate and tested products from certified sellers.
With all these Do’s and Don’ts about silver, you now know how you can prevent your silver from tarnishing, and even if you haven’t yet, you can always have your silver cleaned easily. So, worry not, and buy as many silver articles in Bangalore as you can from Aura Jewels, the trusted name in the jewellery and articles industry.
