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Cleaning Silver Antiques

Everyone likes to have there silver antiques look clean and shinning. But you must be very careful when it comes to cleaning as this could actually do more damage. Because silver is a very soft metal so it can scratch very easily so dont even think about using an abrasive kitchen pad or wire wool to clean you silver! You need to use materials like silver foam or a liquid polish. I keep a box of goodies for cleaning my silver i have in there following :

Silver foam
Cotton buds
Soft cloths
small clean sponges
couple of impregnated cloths
silver dip
soft cloths.

On going maintenance of silver antiques.

So you’ve spent all day cleaning your silver what next? You can get away for a long time by simply dusting with the soft cloths you have in cleaning box. Also wash it warm soapy wate BUT always rinse it well and dry with either a soft cloth or soft kitchen towel. If the silver antiques are not kept in display or even being used then its best to be put away and i recommend being kept in a air-tight box. If you can get some them wrapping it in tarnish proof felt helps as well. Contary to belief tarnish does not harm the silver. Dont get me wrong it looks a complete mess so only clean it if it is going on display. There is a ifferent way to clean you silver antiques but in my opinion is not for the faint hearted and needs to be used with caution and thats silver dip. The important thing to remember is to apply it for a very short ime and rinse throughly. The trouble with silver dip is that you keep using it will wear the silver away and cause damage to your piece. I tend to use it if i have gotten a new item so i will initally clean it with silver dip to get into all areas of the silver. I will then throughly rinse the item making sure everything is rinsed off. I will then not use silver dip on the item again as long as i have taken proper care of it. Silver dip cleans your silver antique great but does not actually polish so remeber to give it a good polish before putting it either on display or away. Remember the above notes are just a guide every collector of
silver antiques have there own method of cleaning and storing there silver. One warning i would give is for the cleaning of electro-plate and sheffield plate. This is because the silver on these items is only a thin layer so take care! And more importantly enjoy your precious silver antiques !