tin foil silver polishing hack
The tin foil silver polishing hack is one of those things that goes around certain corners of the internet around holidays and people are never quite sure if it’s a good idea. The answer is: for your heirloom silver, probably not. It can scratch and I’ve heard the salt can dent it. However, for silver bought at the good will and estate sales and treasure/junk shops I’ve found no better and quicker way to shine those bad boys up while saving my triceps.
I actually love patina and don’t polish a lot of my silver. But there are certain pieces or times I do like them brightened up, and this hack also works on silver plate jewelry.
This hack requires a sink or large flat bottomed glass pan, tin foil, salt, baking soda, and hot water. Are there ratios in other how tos of this one? sometimes. Do I ever bother with them? I do not. I start by lining the area I’m using with foil. For large silver pieces I clean & use my sink, for quick silverware or jewelry I use a glass pan. I like one piece that overhangs a pan or two crisscrossed pieces in the sink.
From here I take a couple solid handfuls of baking soda (maybe 1/2 a cup or so?) and a generous sprinkle of salt (maybe 1/4 cup?) and put it onto the foil.
The most important thing is that whatever areas are touching the foil with the baking soda and salt are the ones that will be “polished”. I’m unclear what kind of metallic chemistry such is happening here (I barely got through pre-nursing school chemistry in a hardcore study group led by my very hunky buddy) but it doesn’t work on any surface not touching the foil. I like to put down my silver and then tuck the foil around it like it’s a little baked potato to get as much touching as possible.
Next pour hot water UNDER the foil, so it goes between the foil & silver. (If you’re doing jewelry or silverware you can just pour the hot water directly into the pan.) The sizzling sound tells you it’s working, kind of like one of those baking soda volcanoes. When it stops sizzling it’s time to unpeel the foil and see how we’ve done. You can see that after one round anything touching the foil is looking pretty darn good.
This piece took me about five “pours”. Each time you can lightly shake the water off the foil but keep some baking soda and salt on the foil and add a bit more. Alternately, if you’re working on a weird spot, like a handle, you can put the baking soda and salt right onto the silver before wrapping it and pouring the water.
Once you’ve gotten as far as you can with the foil trick you’ll likely still have a weird spot or two that might need polish later. rinse the piece in cool water and lightly dry it.
I’ve used a few silver polishes over the years and prefer Goddard’s (https://amzn.to/3Gc6hD3).
I think it’s the easiest and quickest to use but you definitely want some decent ventilation for the fumes. I’m not clear how to actually fancy polish silver so I just use the sponge it comes with to lightly rub any tarnished spots left over. I like to scoop out the cleaner so I have some about the size of a marble on the sponge, I find it works better if you have more than you think you’d need. The tarnish will come off on the sponge so when it gets bad after a few polishings I just rinse it and let it air dry.
Once the tarnished areas are diminished I take a clean cotton towel and buff the metal, switching areas of the towel when too much polish gets on one part.
aaaaand….voila! it takes a few minutes and some prep work but a heck of a lot less time and elbow grease than just with polish alone. Is it addictive? yes. Don’t say I didn’t warn you cause once you see the magic happen you’re gonna feel a very deep urge to foil polish all the things. You’re welcome.
