cleaning silver

paddybar

I bought a sterling silver teapot at a car boot sale today.Could anyone tell me the best way way to clean it without damaging it?It seams to be a build up of cleaning products.

Fey!

If there is a huge build up of old polish, I'd suggest possibly getting it professionally cleaned by the likes of Alwright and Marshall on Fade Street in Dublin; we use them to do badly damaged items for our shop. They aren't the cheapest, but they do an incredible job.

Alternatively, try silver foam. If there is intricate work on the piece, use an old, soft toothbrush (so as not to scratch the silver) to work in the foam, leave it for 10 minutes, then rinse it, dry it, and buff it with a silver polishing cloth. You may need to do this several times to get off a lot of old polish.

paddybar

cheers !thanks for that

ODD-JOB

White spirit is great stuff for cleaning silver ,... but just make sure it is actually silver and not plated ware !!

Some of that continental "silver" is dubious whether it is actually of .925 sterling standard !!
I once cleaned a middle Eastern silver bowl , and the silver came up great , but the other lesser components came uo too , and made it look a bit patchy

kowloon

If you want to stop it tarnishing again after it's cleaned give it a coat of synthetic wax afterwards.