What do you use to polish silver candlesticks?

[cholent]

Report back, I need another guinea pig before I try it

Sounded like so much fun that I just took out some silver to try it with. Maybe I did it wrong, but I wasn't blown away... tarnish was reduced but not eliminated. Silver is far from sparkling

[TimT]

Sounded like so much fun that I just took out some silver to try it with. Maybe I did it wrong, but I wasn't blown away... tarnish was reduced but not eliminated. Silver is far from sparkling

Did it do anything to the pot ?

[cholent]

Did it do anything to the pot ?

I did it in a disposable pan

[MC]

Slight variation on the method but with a cool explanation on how it works:
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/tarnish.html

[caliheat]

Israeli video going around showing how to do this "dip in hot water method".
Not sure the exact mixture: water, silver foil, baking soda and salt.

[ushdadude]

We're looking to polish silverware so any method that lets you polish in bulk would be wesome

[aygart]

For all you scienc geeks out there: boil a pot of water, add a tsp of baking soda, then completely wrap your silver in aluminum foil and place in the pot of boiling water. Within minutes the silver is sparkling clean, no polish necessary. Really cool experiment actually!!

just be careful not to bend the silver while it is hot

[bb1836]

Seems like it was worth it to take chemistry just for what I stirred up 😃

[cholent]

Seems like it was worth it to take chemistry just for what I stirred up 😃

It would be worth it to take chemistry to avoid having to polish silver, if only it was working! Can you be more descriptive about how you wrap in silver foil but still get it immersed completely in the water? Leave the ends open? I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong here. Also, other sites I've googled seem to have a lot more baking soda in their water...?

[whYME]

I wasn't blown away... tarnish was reduced but not eliminated. Silver is far from sparkling

I've seen it done several times and this was always the result. It removes the tarnish but it looks very dull, it's missing the shine it gets from polishing.

[avromie7]

I've seen it done several times and this was always the result. It removes the tarnish but it looks very dull, it's missing the shine it gets from polishing.

so it's a good first step for something really tarnished?

do you use baking soda?

[bb1836]

It would be worth it to take chemistry to avoid having to polish silver, if only it was working! Can you be more descriptive about how you wrap in silver foil but still get it immersed completely in the water? Leave the ends open? I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong here. Also, other sites I've googled seem to have a lot more baking soda in their water...?

not sure exactly how much BS. also only cover the parts that need polishing with foil.

I've seen it done several times and this was always the result. It removes the tarnish but it looks very dull, it's missing the shine it gets from polishing.

yes deff a good start. may not be a perfect science (get it?) but it deff saves time.