| 3 Ag2S | + | 2 Al |  | 6 Ag | + | Al2S3 |
| silver sulfide | aluminum | silver | aluminum sulfide |
These tarnished silver plated chaffing dishes and ice bucket are recent Goodwill finds. I thought they'd be good for holiday dinners that get cold too fast.
Years ago, some friends had us over for a nice dinner and used their real (shiny) silver. I remember her saying something about polishing, aluminum foil, and her sink. I tucked it way back in my brain in case someday I'd need it. I called her today to get a refresher.
Here's what I did.
Boil a big pot of water.
Then add a bunch of baking soda and some salt once it's boiling.
How much? I don't know. I'm not the measuring type.
Enough to get it real fizzy.
Maybe a couple of cups of baking soda
and some aggressive salt shaking.
Do it over your sink or you'll have a mess.
Ask me how I know.
Line your sink with aluminum foil and wrap your pieces in foil for good measure. Not everything has to be covered, just some places in order for the reaction to take place.
Poke holes in it so water can get "in."
This is technical, folks.
Dunk it in your hot water/baking soda/salt solution.
Add more hot water (I used tap) so that it's fully immersed.
An electrochemical reaction will take place between silver sulfide and aluminum while in contact and immersed in this solution.
Kind of like the reaction used for batteries.
I'm a bit of a nerdy bird & tutored organic chemistry in college so I enjoy this stuff.
Then, after 5 minutes or more, carefully remove everything from the hot water with tongs, scrub down your silver with some soap and water and hopefully you're done!
If your pieces are really tarnished, you may have to reheat the water and repeat, or immerse your silver piece in boiling soda/salt water for 5 minutes. Finally, you may need to touch up some stubborn spots with silver polish.
That stuff stinks, so I sure hope you don't have to!
(Wear a mask if you do.)
6 comments:
i have seen this trick before but never tried it. amazing! i used to just use "weenol" which they sold at williams sonoma when i worked there, but this is so much more economoical and green.
Cool trick. I've used toothpaste before, and it sort of works, but this is better!
Thanks!
Really? This is an awesome tip! I've got some silver pieces that used to belong to my grandmothers in addition to some pieces I've picked up out thrifting. I'm definitely trying this!
I have a ton of tarnished family silver you can have/use anytime you wish to repeat this chemical process in the comfort of your own kitchen!
Love, Mom
I can't wait to try this, thank you so much for the info
I have a question: how can you tell a piece is silver when you're at Goodwill? help!
thanks,
natalie
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