How to Clean Silver: The Best Methods, Step by Step

Silver tarnish is not dirt. It is silver sulphide, a dark film that forms when silver meets sulphur compounds in the air — which is why a spoon can turn brown in a drawer it has never been used from. Attacking it with the strongest thing in the cupboard is the wrong instinct, because every abrasive pass takes a sliver of silver with it.

So work upwards. Warm water, a drop of washing-up liquid and a soft cloth lift grease and dust; a dry silver polishing cloth handles most light, fresh tarnish. If the piece is still brown or flat, move to a wash-off silver foam or a cream polish, applied sparingly and worked into the pattern with a soft brush. Save a foil and bicarbonate bath or a chemical silver dip for tarnish that has really taken hold — and read the construction of the piece first, because both can do damage that polishing cannot undo.

None of this is specialist kit, but having it out before you begin stops you improvising with something harsh.

• Two or three soft, lint-free cloths — microfibre or well-washed cotton. One for washing, one for drying, one clean and dry for the final buff.
• A soft brush — a baby toothbrush or a clean make-up brush, for pattern, joins and the backs of fork tines.
• Mild washing-up liquid and warm water. Not hot, and never bleach or a chlorinated bathroom cleaner.
• Cotton buds and a wooden cocktail stick for crevices and the area around settings.
• A silver polishing cloth, plus a wash-off silver foam or cream polish for heavier tarnish.
• For the foil bath: a glass or ceramic bowl, aluminium foil, bicarbonate of soda and table salt.

Work over a folded towel rather than a hard worktop, and put the plug in if you are anywhere near a sink. Chains, earring backs and small charms are at their most lost when wet and slippery.

This is the one household method with real chemistry behind it. Aluminium is more reactive than silver, so in hot water with bicarbonate of soda — and a little salt to help the solution carry a current — the foil gives up electrons and the silver sulphide on the surface is converted back to silver. The tarnish has not dissolved into the water; it has moved onto the foil, which is why the foil blackens and the silver does not.

Two rules cover most of the table. The thinner the silver, the gentler the method: a plated piece has microns to lose, a sterling piece has a fraction of a millimetre of surface it can afford to give up each year. And the more deliberate the finish, the less you should interfere — a piece sold as antiqued is meant to look dark in the hollows, and no amount of cleaning will put that back evenly.

Jewellery punishes impatience more than cutlery does, because the weak point is rarely the silver.

• Chains tangle and stretch when hung wet. Lay them flat on a towel, and clean between the links by drawing a soft cloth back and forth rather than pulling.
• Closed settings and filigree trap water. Use a cotton bud and a dry brush rather than soaking.
• Pearls should never be soaked, dipped or sprayed; wipe with a barely damp soft cloth and dry immediately.
• Porous and soft stones — opal, turquoise, malachite, coral, amber, jet, lapis — should not meet water, polish or dip at all.
• Elastic, thread, leather and silk cord will weaken in water. Clean the metal only, with a cloth.

After any wet cleaning, check each setting with a fingertip. A stone that moves has been loosened, and it is cheaper to have a jeweller tighten a claw now than to lose the stone later.

• Grey paste in the pattern after polishing. Old polish caught in a join. Soften it with warm soapy water and a brush, then lift it out with a cocktail stick. Never dig with a pin or a knife.
• The piece looks duller after the foil bath. That is normal. The bath converts the tarnish but leaves a matte surface; it needs a dry buff afterwards.
• Tarnish is back within a fortnight. Look at where it was stored: wool, felt, cardboard, newspaper and rubber bands all release sulphur, and a damp bathroom speeds everything up.
• Pink or copper-coloured patches on silver plate. The silver layer has worn through to the base metal. No cleaning will fix this; the piece needs replating.
• Fine scratches after cleaning. Usually toothpaste, a scouring pad or kitchen paper, all of which are too abrasive for silver. Grit left on a cloth does the same thing.
• A black cloth after buffing. Expected. It is mostly tarnish and polish residue, not silver, though a heavily used cloth on a worn plated piece will take some silver with it.

Cleaning is only half the job; the tarnish returns from the air, so a dry, low-sulphur drawer buys you months.

• Dry thoroughly before storing, including inside handles, hinge joints and the backs of settings.
• Use an anti-tarnish cloth, bag or drawer liner designed for silver, or wrap pieces in acid-free tissue. Ordinary plastic wrap and damp cardboard are not improvements.
• Keep silver away from wool, felt, rubber, elastic and newspaper, all of which give off sulphur compounds.
• Store in a cool, dry cupboard rather than a bathroom, a conservatory or anywhere that swings between damp and warm.
• Do not stack pieces loose. Silver is soft; a drawer of loose forks will scratch itself as it shifts. Cutlery rolls and felt-lined dividers, not newspaper, do this job.
• Never store silver in a dishwasher, even overnight after a dinner. Detergent residue and damp are both unkind.