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The Tarnished Silver at the Back of the Cupboard Deserves One Evening

Elise Navarro4 min read
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The Tarnished Silver at the Back of the Cupboard Deserves One Evening — Household

The order of operations

Start with a wash, not a polish. Warm water, a drop of mild washing-up liquid, and hands rather than a brush; polishing over grease and dust simply grinds it into the surface. Rinse in clean warm water and dry immediately and completely with a soft cloth, because water marks and damp are their own problem.

Then treat the tarnish with a product made for silver — a long-term silver polish, cream or an impregnated cloth — applied with a soft cotton cloth or cotton wool, working in straight lines along the length of the piece rather than in circles. Use very little and change to a clean section of cloth as it greys. Buff off with a fresh dry cloth, then wash again to remove polish residue, especially on anything that touches food, and dry thoroughly. For detailed handles and engraved patterns, a soft toothbrush and a cotton bud get into the crevices; keep polish out of the grooves you actually want dark, since that shading is part of the design.

Cutlery with bone, ivory or wooden handles should never be submerged, and the same goes for anything with a hollow, sealed handle where trapped water will eventually push the join apart.

What to never do to good silver

Not the dishwasher: heat, harsh detergent and contact with stainless steel will dull and sometimes pit it. Not scouring pads, bicarbonate paste scrubbed on dry, or general-purpose cream cleaners — silver is soft, and micro-scratches are permanent. Not rubber bands or cling film for storage, and not newspaper, whose ink and sulphur content is unhelpful.

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