Expert: George Maxwell - 8/10/2007

Question
I bought a SMC Cleaning plate that should clean your sterling silver with a low intensity electrolysis (a gentle positive magnetic field) which is just strong enough to attract the negative sulfur ions of tarnish but not strong enough to remove any of the metal. I have heard this is not true and actually it is very hard on your sterling silver to use this method of cleaning.  Can you please help me with an answer as to how this works.  Your help will be appreciated.

Thank you,

Kathleen

Answer
Hi there, and thank you for your question.

I don't have enough evidence to say this method "doesn't work", but it sounds a bit suspect to me: I can't see how the manufacturer could generate a "gentle positive magnetic field", and generating a magnetic field isn't electrolysis anyway.

I think the process has been badly described by the manufacturer, but I'd suggest trying to look at reviews of this product online to see what other customers say about its usefulness.

I know of two other methods that I've used sucessfully to clean tarnished silver:

1). An ultrasonic cleaning bath, like those used to clean jewellery. This uses a high-intensity sound to shake dirt particles from the surface of the metal.

2) Best (and cheapest) of all: a bowl containing some hot
washing- soda solution and a chunk of aluminium cooking foil wrapped around the silver item you want to clean: just dip your wrapped item in the soda solution for 10 minutes or so, and the reaction that takes place removes most tarnish - the soda isn't strong enough to attack the silver though.

Method 2 is really cheap and has worked for me every time. Before trying it, though, I'd suggest looking up this method on google for step-by-step instructions: I don't know enought about the items you want to clean to be able to describe a full method.

Hope this helps, but please let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

Many thanks again for your question.