Baking Soda Silver Polish

If you have never tried the baking soda method for removing tarnish from a silver plated razor, then you definitely need to read this thread. However, the baking soda method can only do so much, and it doesn't make the razors bright and shiny at all, so you'll probably end up using some metal polish before it's all said and done. The problem with metal polishes is they remove a microscopic amount of the silver plating along with the tarnish, so they should be used very sparingly if at all (remember, these are old and hard to replace items). What I started doing was making a thin paste of baking soda and water to use as a "polish", which I apply (and rub vigorously) with a small piece of 100% cotton tee shirt. This "polish" works astonishingly well on silver plate as well as gold plate (no good for nickel), and I imagine that little to no plating is lost in the process. I first tried this polish method when I needed to clean a silver plated Pocket Edition case that I had already used MAAS metal polish on once, and did not want to do so again. Obviously, I could not subject a case to the baking soda cleaning method, so I tried "baking soda polish", and it worked like a charm.

This razor is from the Bostonian set from this thread. The "before" pictures are after two rounds of the baking soda method referenced above, and the "after" pictures are after polishing with nothing more than baking soda paste and a 100% cotton cloth.

BEFORE:






AFTER:

Good tip - I am a witness, it works very well on tarnished silver razors. I've never taken before pictures, but it is amazing what can come out of the bath.

Great tip, thanks.

Louis.

The thing about the baking soda / foil thing is you get diminishing returns.

What works for me is alternating the baths with a Lysol tootbrush scrub, especially for cleaning out handle knurling.

One thing I did try when I was trying to get a handle all round shiny, finding that only the area actually touching the foil got the greatest benefit, was to sprinkle the baking soda over a small length of foil and wrap it around the handle (like I was rolling a cigarette). Don't know yet if that was stupid or clever. Either way, it stopped me getting bored, which kept me out of trouble for a while.

I used this technique on a New Standard tonight. Wow! I'm quite disappointed with myself for not taking before shots. The razor was uniformly gun metal gray - much worse off than the before shot in this thread. After three very smelly baths in hot water, baking soda, and foil, it still was looking dull. A little baking soda "polish" and I now have a beautiful razor that looks like the one above.

Thanks!

Hmm. Interesting idea. Great looking results. I have to wonder though, wouldn't the "paste" you made from the baking soda actually qualify as an abrasive?

Oh, I just noticed you mentioned your method works well on gold plating, but have you tried it on gold plating on a razor case, such as an Aristocrat of gold Bostonian case? I don't know that they are actually plated in gold but I have been looking for something to polish them with that works well.

I've only used the borax, salt and foil method found in the Wiki(with great results). I wonder if they result in the same chemical process?

IronHammer said:

have you tried it on gold plating on a razor case, such as an Aristocrat of gold Bostonian case?

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I used it on a gold De Luxe Big Boy case that was stained and dull and it came out beautifully. No damage to the plating at all.

Might be a bit too rough in my opinon, hope it works out for those who try it.

ras120 said:

I used it on a gold De Luxe Big Boy case that was stained and dull and it came out beautifully. No damage to the plating at all.

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Cool. I am definitely going to try this on one of my gold boxes!

IronHammer said:

Hmm. Interesting idea. Great looking results. I have to wonder though, wouldn't the "paste" you made from the baking soda actually qualify as an abrasive?

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Yes, that's probably the primary action that's doing anything in this particular technique. As far as I understand the chemistry of the whole baking-soda-aluminum-foil trick, the baking soda isn't actually involved in the tarnish-to-silver chemical conversion directly, but the aluminum is. What the baking soda solution does do is to create an environment where a small current flows between the silver and the aluminum which acts to break the bond between the silver and sulfur (tarnish is silver sulfide, Ag[sub]2[/sub]S). That frees the up sulfur to bond with the aluminum, which it has a stronger affinity for, and leaves the silver behind.

Is the sulfur bonding to the aluminum? Why then is sulfur released as gas, as evidenced by the horrible smell?

It makes sense that rubbing the baking soda paste works by a mild polishing effect.

ltjaw said:

Is the sulfur bonding to the aluminum? Why then is sulfur released as gas, as evidenced by the horrible smell?

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I'll preface all of this by saying that I remember just enough chemistry from high school and college to be dangerous. When I said "bond with the aluminum" I meant bond in the chemical sense, not that the sulfur necessarily sticks to the foil (although you will get a good coating on it eventually if you're doing really tarnished things or multiple razors).

The primary reaction is: 3 Ag[sub]2[/sub]S + 2 Al -> 6 Ag + Al[sub]2[/sub]S[sub]3[/sub]

Some of the resulting aluminum sulfide will actually float around loose in the water if the razor you're working with was heavily tarnished. I don't know, but I could imagine that small amounts of it could become aerosolized in the steam rising off the water that you'd be able to smell. Also, since we don't do things under lab conditions I'm sure there are other secondary reactions at play -- the water we use has things other than pure H[sub]2[/sub]O that may also react with the sulfur. So what you smell could be other sulfurous compounds.

This page from a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin has good basic information on the science behind the technique.