Cleaning silver plate with baking soda// General metal cleaning

[eleny]

Has anyone done this with success? I read a bunch of web pages with recipes for it. The best info I found says to use way more baking soda than most instructions.

I lined a plastic tub with foil, added a small box of baking soda and very hot water. The plate pieces were pretty tarnished so I wasn't expecting miracles. But it did clean off a bunch. This method is recommended because it doesn't remove the silver along with the tarnish.

Some tarnish came off but not all. So I finished the pieces with a cream silver cleaner and they look okay. The underlying metal is showing through and I sort of like it. I'm not a "silver" type person. So the tarnish makes them look old and I like it. The handles on this coffee set are black wood and it all sort of matches.

One more thing. There's an all purpose metal cleaner that I like a lot. It's called Simichrome Polish. I could never find it locally at any hardware. But I got a bunch from an Ebay seller. This stuff is fantastic. It's made in Germany and distributed out of Iowa. It cleans and polishes and I've been using it for decades.

[Nicole]

1. I skip the foil & tub

and just use a paste of baking soda rubbed directly on the item. Works pretty well for me.

[cally]

2. I add about 1/2 cup baking soda

and a large piece of aluminum foil to boiling water. I then dip the silverware (plate) in. Works well but you have to worry about the knives. Some use glue to hold it together and this will damage them.

[Poiuyt]

3. Don't use the dipping method if you want your silver to look old

You want tarnish to stay in all the little details of the design. If you dip, then it removes all the tarnish and your piece will look brand new. I always use Wright's Silver Cream, the kind that comes in a tub.