Cleaning silver?

[birdman]

OK, I am talking about stuff found in salt water that has a thick black tarnish on it. I have soaked them in cleaners but no luck. I have several coins ,some rings and a silver thimbil that are in need of some help. Any ideas?

 

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[fistfulladirt]

Electrolysis.

 

[DirtyHowi]

tarnx? works pretty good on light tarnished silver, dunno about heavy though. i'm pretty land locked so...

 

[boris]

Olive oil and old toothbrush work good. They just found Sam Bellamy's remains in Wellfleet , smells like rum. Let it soak for 300 years or more.

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

I use some jewelers rouge and a buffer (Dremel or bench grinder with buffer attached).

Here is before:

and after:

Wayne

 

[silversnacher]

Use baking soda just rub it on and rinse the difference is huge!

 

[silversnacher]

I heard it makes tiny scratches but idk...

 

[magpie]

Lemon juice works a treat, just soak for a couple of hours. Or for coins place in a bit of tin foil spit on it fold over and rub with fingers, it will feel warm and give off an eggy smell, a chemical reaction is taking place it will remove the tarnish without over cleaning it.

 

[GTR]

Since salt is a "base" material, you need an acid to take it away. Lemon juice is an acid and will work but I think white vinegar works best.

 

[silversnacher]

Yup salt vinegar works great at least on copper I think

 

[leprechaun]

Electrolysis

Birdman, Low voltage Electrolysis works the best on black beach silver coins. First you need a cell phone charger 1 and a half volts to 2 volts tops.
Second a large plastic bowl,two aligator clips one stainless steel spoon. Fill the bowl three quarters with water, about 3 quarts, next add 3 tablespoons salt
and last three dashes of lemom juice, make sure the water is warm so the salt will disolve. Last splice wires and attatch aligator clips to wire ends, the positive goes to spoon,
The negative to cleaning clip. Put spoon in water keeping the clip out of water, attatch your black coin to the other clip and heres the important part,you just want the coin
just under the water keeping most of the clip out of the water tape it to edge of bowl. Plug it in within a few seconds you'll see black comeing off coin, within a minuate the
coin will be boiling, don't worry it's cleaning the coin at low voltage, let boil for two minuates, then unplug clean with dish soap and tooth brush, then rub the coin with a silver polishing cloth
and you won't believe how nice it will come out.let me know how you make out, I just learned this process last week from my friend surfnturf. I used to do it the old way, in small glass
jar and used a DFX battery charger putting out 6 volts, ended up cooking my coins , not so with the new system.

 

[birdman]

Very good! I have not tried electrolysis maybe that is the ticket! I have tried the baking soda ,vinegar, foil and salt water and also the limon juice. I still have some thinks pulled from the bay that will not come clean so I will use electrolysis and see how she turns out.

 

[pauloferreira]

Put some aluminum foil in a bowl add warm water to it followed by baking soda and salt. Dump silver in and tarnish loosens up pretty quick. Then dry and finish off with some silver cleaner.!