Silver Cleaning Procedure

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This soft, malleable, ductile metal has a brilliant sheen when well polished.
Small amounts of the metal in elemental form occur naturally in the earth, but most of the silver we use is extracted from silver ores.
Silver is chemically unaffected by pure water, pure air, and a majority of food stuffs, but gets scratched easily if pure.
Silver is used as the plating in electroplated nickel silver, for making cutlery, utensils, vases, and decorative artifacts.

Types of Silver
Sterling Silver Silver-Plated (EPNS)

Sterling Silver
Sterling silver is an alloy containing 92.5 per cent silver, and the rest is mainly copper.
Sterling silver is more expensive than silver-plated alloy and for this reason is seldom used in hotels.

Silver-Plated (EPNS) …show more content…

When it gets tarnished, more complex cleaning methods have to be employed.

Following are the cleaning & polishing methods for silver:
Regular Cleaning Silver Dip Polivit or Aluminium-Soda method
Burnishing Machine Plate-Powder Method
I. Regular Cleaning
• Wash the article in a hot solution of synthetic detergent, scrubbing with a piece of cotton cloth.
• Then rinse in clean boiling water in an enameled tray.
• A sheet of alunimium and some soda can be placed in the tray.
• Once the articles are clean, drain the water away and wipe dry while it is still warm, rubbing hard with a lint-free linen cloth or chamois leather.

II. Silver-Dip Method
• A silver dip solution is used when tarnished silver is to be cleaned.
• It is usually a pink coloured liquid based on an acid solution of a compound into which the articles are immersed completely for removal of tarnish.
• The silver should remain in the liquid for a very short time, the articles should be lifted out, washed with warm water and dried.
• While working with silver dip, stainless steel containers should not be used since the dip attacks …show more content…

Source: https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Polivit+Method+cleaning&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved

III. Polivit Method
• Polivit is an aluminium metal sheet containing holes, which is best used in an enamel bowl or galvanized iron bowl.
• The polivit is placed in the bowl together with some soda.
• The silver to be cleaned is then put into the bowl, ensuring that at least the one piece of silver has contact with the polivit.
• Sufficient boiling water is poured into the bowl to cover the silver being cleaned has contact with the polivit.
• A chemical reaction takes place between the polivit, soda, boiling water and silver which causes the tarnish to be lifted.
• After 2-4 minutes, silver should be removed from the bowl and placed into the 2nd bowl of boiling and then rinsed.
• On removal from the second bowl the silver is allowed to drain and then polished with a clean cloth and then dried with a tea cloth.

Source: https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Polivit+Method+cleaning&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=662&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved
IV. Burnishing

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