Jewelry

[ECBG]

I have been working with the Southern Highland Craft Guild, items made in the origonal methods of the 1800's.

I was talking to today's decendant of our first cottage industry that has THE most sparkling sterling silver.  They use TARNEX.  It's at amazon and walmart.

[Q4u]

It's a wonderful product, have been using it for many, many years.... 

[paixmcdao]

[Trinity11]

Please, please be exceptionally careful with this product. I saw more mishaps with this product in my career working in the jewelry profession than any other. It is very caustic and takes off not only tarnish but a layer of the precious metal, leaving it even more vulnerable to tarnish. Please do not use on diamonds! 

[Shelbelle]

Been around for a long time, but I always stayed away from using it due its high toxcitity. Buyer be very careful !!

[Kachina624]

Not rcommended for use on Southwestern jewelry because the removes the oxidation that brings out the detail in the designs.  In short, it will ruin it or any oxidized jewelry.

I will not use any cleaner on any of my jewelry but a Sunshine Cloth.

[Pezzie]

@ECBG  Yes, it does work well, and unless they have changed the formula, it also smells pretty bad!  My mother in law used it for her silverware, and I could always tell when I walked into their house.  Smell seemed to linger. 
But, the silver did shine! 

[Mindy D]

In my opinion, TNEx is a dangerous and unhealthy product. I say NO to this product. 

To clean silver

Get out a glass pan or large bowl, or any deeper glass vessel. Pyrex is good. I prefer old Pyrex made of borosilicate glass to any new Pyrex. Safest with very hot water. I usually use my 9x13 Pyrex pan or my old Pyrex mixing bowl. I usually use my 8"x8" Pyrex pan for cleaning silver jewelry or just some utensils. DO NOT USE A METAL BOWL OR PAN. I believe this also will work in a plastic tub like the ones Rubbermaid made, but I have not tried this. 

Get a piece of aluminum foil about 8" long but can be longer or shorter. Place flat piece of foil in bottom of glass. You can also use more foil and line the whole glass pan if you want.

Add very hot water to glass vessel. I boil my water first and then let it wait about  three minutes, so it's still very hot but not boiling. You just need to go up a few inches from the bottom of the vessel, but you can add more water if necessary. 

Add a 1/4 cup of *Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda to water and stir lightly with something plastic until dissolved or mostly dissolved. DO NOT STIR WITH ANYTHING METAL.* Sold in grocery stores, home improvement stores. Lasts indefinitely and has other cleaning uses.

Once the washing soda is dissolved, you don't need to keep the water very hot, so then you can start dipping without worrying about the hot water on you. 

Now, take a piece of your silver and dip it in. You can do this with big pieces such as coffee and tea sets and trays. Make sure a part of the silver piece comes in contact with the foil. Wherever the silver dips into the water, as long as a part of the piece is making contact with the foil, 100% of the tarnish will be removed. No wipeing or scrubbing necessary. You can move the object around to make sure all parts have been submerged.
For untensils. You can also lay your utensils down on the aluminum foil and they can all be cleaned together. 
At least some of the parts must touch the foil each time for this to work.

Just rinse each piece off when you're  done cleaning your silver and dry it.

Keep cleaning all the pieces with the same water-washing soda mixture until you're finished. Or you can start again midway with some new solution with hot water and foil. You can throw the used water down the sink and the piece of foil in the trash. You can rinse and clean your glass vessel as usual. It will not be harmful to use with food or cooking. 

I DO NOT USE THIS METHOD ON DELIBERATELY OXIDIZED JEWELRY. It will remove the oxidation.

[Imaoldhippie]

I have ruined some nice silver jewelry with that stuff.

[Mindy D]

Super Washing Soda can be used with special cleaning plates, such as QWICKSILVER®, SilverLion and Speedy Plate to remove tarnish from silver, silver plate, jewelry, gold, copper, bronze, stainless steel and most brass. Instead of these plates, which are just pieces of aluminum, use your own aluminum foil.

Safely clean Silver with no Scrubbing Needed

• Place a sliver plate at the bottom of a plastic or glass bin

• Add 2 tablespoons of ARM & HAMMER™ Super Washing Soda

• Carefully pour in 2 cups of hot water

• Carefully add the item to the mixture and wait 5 seconds

Use gloves when placing items into the mixture and rinse thoroughly when finished.

SAME METHOD AS BEFORE BUT WITH LESS WASHING SODA AND WATER THATS NOT AS HOT. WORKS GREAT TOO.