How to Clean Silver and Silver Jewelry

There are no "magic" directions for how to clean silver. This article tells how to do it, what tarnish is, and why silver tarnishes. Blitz is a great company, and you should know that we've been in business since 1912 and literally invented the concept of putting polish inside a cloth. Blitz products are still U.S. made by hand in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Use a soft 100% cotton (nub free) cloth or flannel cloth and gently rub off any excess makeup.  Silver is a very soft metal and it can be scratched it is rubbed too briskly.  Never use anything but a clean, soft material.  Paper, polyester, and coarse fabrics may contain wood or other fibers and even synthetics that can cause tiny scratches in the surface of fine silver.  Dirt left over from previous cleanings can also scratch the surface as well. A good tip is to gently rub the piece in straight lines, not in circles. This can help avoid scratches. Products with ammonia are not only hazardous to your health, but are bad for silver. It is well known in the industry that these products, such as silver dip, can and do often ruin the outer layers of your precious metals.

The Blitz Ultra Silver Cleaning & Polishing Cloth is a 100% cotton flannel cloth. The inner cloth cleans and the outer cloth polishes. Formulated for all fine sterling silver and silver-plate. 12" x 15"

To remove light dirt, fingerprints or makeup just use a small amount of Blitz Silver Polish. This is specially designed for Silver! (Dish Soap and other home made jewelry cleaners are not specifically designed for this.) Unlike pastes and other silver polishes, the Blitz Silver Care Polish is a liquid polish with tarnish inhibitors to clean and restore a mirror like finish to heavily tarnished silver flatware, hollowware and silver service.

Not all paste cleaners are recommended for soft, porous gemstones, so care must be taken to use the appropriate polish or cleanser that will not harm your gemstones.

Blitz, one of the only makers of completely non-toxic jewelry cleaner, makes a wonderful product called, “Blitz Silver Shine”. Blitz Silver Shine is designed to remove tarnish from silver jewelry in seconds by utilizing a revolutionary new electrochemical process and is packaged in a wide mouth jar to easily clean larger pieces of silver jewelry.

Storing silver in the open air and humidity for extended periods of time can often cause it to tarnish quickly.  Tarnishing is a normal process and is caused by oxidization and moisture from the air. The actual compound that makes up tarnish is called silver sulfide, which is directly related to the amount of sulfur in the air. The best way to keep silver jewelry tarnish free is to keep it in a dark, dry place.

Tarnish looks a little different on gold and copper, and the chemical process are different in both gold and silver. Tarnishing occurs when natural gases in the earth's atmosphere (Hydrogen Sulphide) react with the surface of your silver. Tarnish starts as a light yellow discoloration of silver; it then starts to change to darker shades of brown as the tarnish gets to be more severe. Tarnish is not dirt, and dirt must be cleaned off with jewelry cleaner before you remove the tarnish. Homemade cleaners are sometimes fine for diamonds in gold or platinum, but stronger solutions get risky with some of the other metals, which can be tarnished, depending on exactly what cleaner you're using and how strong. Jewelry lovers can now clean all jewelry metals removing all dull tarnish from platinum, yellow gold, white gold, sterling silver, and titanium jewelry metals with Blitz products.

These exciting, new and continuously improved products make the arduous process of cleaning silver easie,r by providing a no fuss, no muss way of polishing silver quickly and flawlessly using dry, disposable cloths impregnated with tarnish removers and tarnish control chemicals. These pleasant smelling, non-toxic products use the electro-chemical properties of the tarnish on silver coupled with the special formula and a top secret cleaning solution to literally pull the tarnish off. Blitz's products make the arduous process easier by providing dry cloths impregnated with tarnish removers and tarnish control.

One good suggestion to help reduce tarnish and keep your silver jewelry tarnish free for months at a time, is to keep your jewelry in an air-tight protective bag. Try to use a tarnish proof cloth or you can use a plastic zip lock bag made of Mylar or polyethylene. Some plastic contains sulfur compounds which can cause your jewelry to tarnish faster or even stain!  Never use polyvinyl plastic bags, such as garbage bags. You should store your jewelry so that it isn't rubbing up against other jewelry or wood, like in a jewelry box. It is good to remember that wood usually contains acids that can mar a finish.