Which Method Of Cleaning Silver Jewelry Works Best?

You know that if you’re lucky enough to inherit silver cutlery or invest in a pretty chandelier, it can fade and begin to discolor in just a few months. This is because, in reality, household silver (used for jewelry, tableware, tea sets, etc.) combines very soft sterling silver with other stronger metals such as copper to make the final product.

The discoloration of sterling silver may appear as a yellow-gray or almost black film on the surface of the item, but unlike the rust that corrodes metal, the discoloration is easily removed. Sterling silver, like many other metals, requires little maintenance to maintain its mirror-like luster.

Fortunately, you answered when you called. Based on suggestions from the community, we tested six different methods. Some were bought at the store, some were DIY, and all used Happy Spoons. Read the findings below to see which methods weren’t compared exactly and which were the clear winners.

Toothpaste is Least Effective

Two readers, QueenSashy and Klrcon, suggested using toothpaste to clean silver—but Boulangere said that it’s “abrasive and will scratch the silver, especially if it’s not silver plate.” Well, it didn’t do all that much.

Definitely the least abrasive cleaner out of this lot, a whitening toothpaste only lightened the tarnish rather than removing it altogether—which, depending on your needs, might be enough.
Smell is great and it’s not a very annoying thing to get on your fingers because it just rinses off.
Cost is minimal (and/or you probably already have it on hand).

Hubcap Cleaner is Most Aggressive

The man who sold me a set of silver-plate utensils (not mad at him, because technically I didn’t ask) recommended hubcap cleaner as the best way to get them squeaky clean.

Far and away from the most aggressive of the cleaners we tested, hubcap cleaner left the most silvery, shiny section—but stripped away all the good tarnish and even left a strange splotch.
Dug up on a back shelf at Home Depot, this wasn’t the easiest bottle to source in New York.
Something about rubbing hubcap cleaner on a utensil you wish to eat off of later just feels…wrong.

Lemon Juice & Baking Soda is Great

“Oxidation on silver can be cleaned off with lemon juice and baking soda,” Rebecca Harvey shared. Easy enough to just reach in the fridge and pantry for these supplies, we set to work.

Relatively abrasive, especially for an all-natural cleaner, this combination removed almost all of the tarnish (even some of the good kind) and left a slightly dulled sheen.
Made by mixing up two common pantry items, this one is something you’ll always have on hand—and very easy to come by if you don’t.
The fizzing effect was great fun.

Aluminum Foil, Baking Soda & Hot Water is Best Overall

Klrcon insisted that “for silverware, the easiest method is the aluminum foil and baking soda trick,” which is something we heard from a number of users. “You just dump it in the sink and let it soak and it does a darn good job of getting even heavily oxidized tarnish off if you leave it long enough… Then you just give it a good rinse.”
Others suggested variations on this solution, ranging from Pegeen’s tip “to fill an aluminum pan (or one lined with aluminum foil) with hot water, add salt and baking soda, and stir to dissolve. When you add the silver pieces, a chemical reaction occurs, removing tarnish.” to our creative director Alexis’ version, which called for just baking soda, stirred into hot water in a pan lined with aluminum foil.

A short soak in this solution loosened the dark tarnish so that it rubbed right off, but left just the right amount of lighter coloring that we love.
Being mostly water based, it was the least gunky solution to deal with.
As the baking soda and foil reacted with the silver, the whole bath gave off a slightly strange, dirty scent.
Though it required a bit of set-up—lining a dish with foil, then dumping in baking soda and hot water—we could see how this would be the easiest way to polish a mess of silverware by far.

Conclusion

While true silver polishes, such as both Tiffany’s and Wright’s, cleaned the spoon very much to our liking (meaning thoroughly but without excessive abrasion), nothing compared in ease, effectiveness, and lack of mess than the combination of baking soda, hot water, and aluminum foil. It’s all-natural, effective because of a chemical reaction (which we geekily love), and seemed impossible to mess up. We also loved how simple it would be for cleaning a whole pile of silver.

If you happen to live near a Tiffany’s and don’t mind forking over for a bottle, or have a tub of Wright’s on hand for cleaning earrings, they wouldn’t be bad in a pinch. Our tube of toothpaste didn’t seem very effective, but the real concern would be that every tube is different so the potency would be hard to monitor. Both lemon juice + baking soda and hubcap cleaner were so powerful we’d be scared to try them on good silver—and the latter was just a little gross to consider for utensils.

How To Do It?

Line a casserole dish or shallow vessel with aluminum foil (or obtain an aluminum dish).
Sprinkle in a generous amount of baking soda.
Add the silver pieces, being sure that each piece touches the foil.
Pour hot water on top, wait until it cools, and then remove each piece and rub clean with a rag.
First photo by Bobbi Lin; all others by Alpha Smoot.