Cleaning, Storing and Displaying Antique Sterling Silver
Author: Grant Copland
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Whether your store your antique sterling silver or put it on
display, you must first clean and give it a fine polish. For
this you need a flannel cloth, a 100% cotton cloth, a special
sterling silver cleaning cloth or a soft bristle brush, such as
a horsehair brush or a baby's toothbrush. Silver is a very soft
metal and it can thus be easily scratched or pitted so it needs
to be lightly rubbed or polished. Make sure that whatever
cleaning implement you use is completely cleaned as left over
dirt from previous cleanings can also cause pitting or abrasions
on your antique sterling silver.
You can merely use a small amount of laundry detergent mixed
with one half cup of warm water as your cleaning agent for doing
a light cleaning for things like dust, dirt, or fingerprints.
Then get a soft polishing cloth and give your antique sterling
silver piece a nice polish. After you have completely air dried
your cleaning implement, store it in a zip lock bag.
If there is a whole lot of tarnish you'll need to use a silver
paste cleaner or a silver polish spray. You should never clean
or polish with circular motion as this can cause scratching,
instead your rubbing motions should be lengthwise. You can
remove that creviced tarnish on antique sterling silver use a
very soft brush but some people actually leave the tarnish in
the crevices of a piece to give it "character".
Remember to wear gloves when touching your antique sterling
silver. There are salts, fats, and oils within your skin that
can tarnish. In fact, fingerprints can become veritably etched
into sterling silver. After you clean your antique sterling
silver with a cleaner, use a clean cloth to take away any
residue of the cleaner. It is now ready for storing or
displaying.
If you are placing your just cleaned antique sterling silver
into storage, wrap them individually with buffered and acid-free
tissue paper, well-washed cotton, linen or silver cloths. Do not
use felt, newspaper, wool or chamois leather as a wrapper
medium. These materials can cause extensive tarnishing to your
antique sterling silver
If you are going to display your precious antique sterling
silver collection, consider a cabinet of wood with a
glass-enclosed display space for putting these pieces on
display. Unvarnished shelves in a wooden case omit damaging
gaseous vapors so make sure that the wooden shelves are well
varnished. Glass shelves are good but make very sure that they
are strong enough to support the total weight of your antique
sterling silver.
To fight tarnishing place camphor blocks inside the cabinet, but
you cannot let them actually touch the antique sterling silver
pieces. There are also specially made papers and cloths that
prevent or minimize tarnish buildup utilizing silver salts or
activated carbon.
Never use cotton, felt, wool or velvet as the clothes upon which
your antique sterling silver pieces rest. The sulfides within
these materials will eat away at the metal. While sunlight does
not cause tarnishing, it can accelerate the chemical processes
that bring on that film so don't have your display case directly
in the path of sunlight.
Not only do you want to use soft cloths like flannel or
all-cotton or very soft brushes like horsehair brushes when you
do you're cleaning of your sterling silver, especially your
displayed sterling silver, but wearing white gloves is also a
good idea. Why wear these gloves? There are salts, fats, and
oils within your skin that can tarnish the sterling silver
pieces, that's why. In fact, fingerprints can become veritably
etched into sterling silver. Prevent this with the wearing of
gloves when handling.
About the author:
Grant Copland is the owner of www.antique-sterling-silver.com
Visit here for more information, articles and to buy new and used antique sterling silver.
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