12/12/05 | Water Softener Cleans Silver?
The other day I was watching a public broadcasting station and they started a show with a softspoken guy (I don’t recall his exact name) who proceeded to present several “tips” for accomplishing things like shining up shoes with ordinary household ingredients like toothpaste and salt. I was about to change the channel when he started talking about a tip on how to clean silver jewelry using powdered Water Softener as an ingredient.
Before you read any further, here is a warning: DO NOT use this method for jewelry that has any precious stones. Also DO NOT use this method on “Antiqued” silver as it will remove the desired antiqued finish on the silver. It’s gotta be pretty much “all-silver” jewelry.
I admit I was a bit intrigued because the ingredients he used in all of his demos were simple things you’d find around the house. The only thing was that I wasn’t too familiar with Water Softener. The brands he mentioned were Calgon and Rain Drops.
Apparently, this used to be much more common in households and was for washing clothes. I tried to find more info online about water softeners, and basically found that they replace hardness in water due to calcium and magnesium with salts in the form of sodium or potassium. I am NOT into chemistry so I have no idea what the chemical reactions that take place are… in fact if anyone is a chemistry person who knows, please leave a comment.
OK, so his method was to take an aluminum pie plate, the kind you’d get with store bought pies. I believe that you can also use a plate covered with aluminum foil as well. Then he added 1 tablespoon or so of ordinary table salt and 1 tablespoon or so of the aforementioned powdered water softener. Then he added some extremely hot (though not boiling) water to the pie plate and stirred to dissolve the salt and softener.
Now he dunked some tarnished silver items in the solution and the results were drastic and pretty amazing. The tarnish on the silver just seemed to evaporate magically. There wasn’t any rubbing or washing needed. He just dunked them in for a couple seconds and then took them out and they looked like new!
That immediately got me looking for water softener the next time I went to the market. It seems like the good thing about using this method, as opposed to a jewelry cleaning cloth, is that for more ornate silver jewelry the solution will instantly get inside the nooks and crannies, which eliminates the need for any difficult scrubbing.
But when I searched high and low for Calgon powdered water softener I couldn’t find it in any stores. There was a liquid form of Calgon, but I didn’t know if that would work similarly and wasn’t about to take a chance at a cost of about $7.00 for the bottle. I was about to give up and maybe ask if any readers had heard of this method, when I saw something online about the fact that the water softener only serves to make the solution conductive. In fact it’s the aluminum of the plate or foil that makes the reaction tick. And thus, you could subsitute baking soda for the water softener!
This got me back in testing mode for tarnished jewelry. I had a few sterling silver earring hooks that were brown with tarnish. I got a aluminum pie plate, some baking soda, and table salt out. I had also heard that this could be done using a “bowl” of aluminum foil and since I wasn’t sure about the exact composition of the pie plate, I threw a few pieces of spare aluminum foil in to be sure.
Then I added 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp of baking soda and poured in some hot water. Nice foaming action with the baking soda. I had to stir quite a bit to dissolve all the salt. Then I dropped in the earring hooks.
There was an immediate change in the color of the silver. It was definitely brighter, but didn’t seem nearly as instantaneous as the demo on TV. I left the earring hooks in for a few minutes and then took them out and wiped them gently with a paper towel. The results are below… I know the pictures are very dark and sort of “blue”-ish but I think you can see the differences.
Earring Hooks Before Treatment
Earring Hooks After Treatment
So, the baking soda and salt solution seems to be an interesting alternative to water-softener and salt when cleaning silver jewelry. Like I said before, this might be good for all silver items that have a lot of nooks and crannies that a jewelry cloth might not get to. I would definitely welcome anyone who might submit a comment about the chemical nature of this method and how it works.
And again, DO NOT try this with jewelry that has precious stones or anything else other than silver in it. I have not tried it with anything other than purely silver items. Still, this could be a method of cleaning those extra silver findings or wire pieces that have become tarnished.
December 28th, 2005 at 11:56 am
The greatest benefit of this method over “polishing” your silver is that will not remove any of the silver. Silver Sulfide is the stuff that makes your silver look grayish over time. This is the oxidation.
When immersed in the baking soda/salt solution, the aluminum reacts with the silver sulfide, pulling the sulphur atoms out and “plating” them onto the aluminum as aluminum sulfide. The silver that remains from the reaction is redeposited onto the silver. So, no loss of silver.
When you use a polishing cloth or polishing paste, the silver sulfide is removed from you piece, but so is a fair amount of silver. When you are working with silver plate, this is especially detrimental, because the layer of silver may not be very thick.
peter
Contenti Jewelry Making Supplies
http://www.contenti.com
December 28th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Peter - thanks for your explanation. I figured that using polishing paste was removing silver but I didn’t know that using a polishing cloth was basically removing the silver too! That’s a good note about the effects of this on Silver Plate… since I know a lot of stores actually sell silver plate findings instead of sterling because it is cheaper!
So the Baking Soda and Salt solution is what activates the Aluminum Sulfide reaction then? I was trying to figure out why the guy on TV would use Water Softener over Baking Soda if he knew the chemical reactions that he was talking about, because it seems like a ton of more people have baking soda. Most people don’t have water softener in their houses.
Do you know anything about the effects of these reactions on glass, stone, or other precious metals? The problem I have is that the jewelry we make often contains things other than silver. I know that you have to be careful with certain precious stones otherwise they will be discolored…
February 21st, 2006 at 8:56 am
Hello! I came across your blog while Googling various bead shows. Using this method you talk of with baking soda (not water softener) is used commonly amongst beaders and silversmiths that I know. I’ve used this method numerous times on sterling, fine silver, semi-precious, precious beads and cabochons, with seemingly no ill effects. Nothing has faded, or dulled from what I can tell. I’ve never had complaints from customers in the 5 years that I’ve been doing it. It’s fantastic for cleaning jewelry before a big show. I pass on how do do this cleaning to my buyers,
It could very well be that I just haven’t tried it on the wrong precious stone yet…so take my advice with a grain of salt!
March 16th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Yes, this method works very well. But, as mentioned, you can not use it with precious stones. I always recommend it to my customers. However if an item is very tarnished, it will not make your jewelry perfectly clean and look like new. Additional polishing is still required.
October 2nd, 2006 at 5:21 pm
I tried this solution on an intricate necklace that tarnished. It is literally thousands of circles. I couldn’t wear it if I couldn’t clean it up. I tried the salt and baking soda solution. The necklace is like NEW!! Thank you for your help!
March 4th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
The gentleman’s name is Graham Haley - he publishes a book called “Haley’s Handy Hints”. There is a lot of good stuff in it!
March 15th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Can anyone please advise where you can find the water softner powder. Thanks Bob
March 26th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I live in Louisiana, and the only place I’ve been able to find powdered water softener is at Albertson’s grocery store near the Borax and bleaches.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hello everyone,
I tried both methods and it seemed to me that the water softener method worked better.
Bob, you can find the water softener at Albertson’s next to the laundry soap.
Have a great day!
Brandy
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
My box of Calgon has a phone#1-800-888-0192.I hopes this helps anyone looking for the product. It does work really well
April 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I think I was watching this same fellow/show. He also used water softener to easily get rid of baked on grease on a grill/grate. Would anyone recall what the “formula” was to do this? I’d like to give it a try.
May 5th, 2007 at 9:57 am
listen up!
baking soda, boiling water, aluminum foil, and a non-reactive container lined with this foil. place piece in bowl, ensuring contact with aluminum which is necessary for reaction.
1. boil water, remove from heat.
2. pour baking soda into pot of boiling water *carefully* (maybe over sink as it bubbles and makes a fuss)
3. pour solution into foiled container
4. done :D
rule: 1 tablespoon baking soda: 1 cup water.
note: putting the piece in the bowl before the water = easier than after to ensure contact of piece with aluminum.
the reaction is: the tarnish you see is silver sulfide. silver sulfide + aluminum with the baking soda solution as conductor yields silver and aluminum sulfide. so the sulfide moves through the solution and binds to the aluminum, and the heat allows the reaction to happen faster. if the piece is very tarnished it may take a couple times, but generally, if the piece is in contact with the Al. and the solution is hot and right, you will see an immediate change to a bright clean piece of 925 silver :D
-thaneda
May 5th, 2007 at 9:59 am
i meant the sulfer moves through the water, not the sulfide, duh.
July 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Calgon is available in the laundry section next to the old fashioned laundry bars and borax in most department and chain grocery stores.
July 10th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I also found Calgon only at HEB - couldn’t find it at Kroger, Walmart, or Gerlands.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:36 pm
You can buy the Calgon Water Softener powder on line at this address. I hope this helps
October 30th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I bought the commerical version of this 15 yrs ago & it works great — even on gemstones, just not on soft stones like pearls or opals etc. But I do my silver and gold jewelry w/diamonds, rubies, even turquoise (quickly). Kovel’s antique guide warns NOT to do that aluminum foil “trick” A metal engineer told me it was because the aluminum would transfer to the silver while the tarnish went to the aluminum and things would get dull. The Haley’s book “borrowed” the hint from Heloise from many years ago, and even they not say to be very careful with that method. The commercial plates are an alloy of some sort and are still used by museums in England — a friend bought her’s there, I go mine at a home show. The name of the plate is Qwicksilver.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
If the tarnish or whatever binds to the aluminum, how many times may the aluminum pan be used?? Is it a one time event or is it a matter of how many items you are cleaning and/or how tarnished they are??