Important: Safety Warning
This page directs the use of hazardous substances — such as benzine, gasoline, lye, or strong acids — for household tasks. These materials are highly flammable, corrosive, or poisonous, and the practices described have caused fires, burns, and poisonings.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › The Day's Routine › The Day's Routine: Silver
The Day's Routine: Silver
To Polish Silver. - All plate and silverware which is in regular use and not stored in such a way as to protect it from discoloration should be carefully polished once a week. It is best to have a regular time for this purpose. Never use sand or scouring soaps, pumice stone, or gritty wash- TY ing powders for silverware, or any other polishes the nature of which you do not understand. Many of them will scratch the silver, and others will discolor it.
Articles recommended for polishing silver if not much stained are whiting -either fluid, dry, or moistened with alcohol or sweet oil-prepared chalk, cream of tartar, milk, or a solution of alum.
To apply these use chamois skin or velveteen. Or use pieces of old woolen or flannel underwear or pieces of old linen tablecloths.
Or apply with an old toothbrush or a nailbrush with soft bristles.
Or prepare and have ready polishing cloths as follows: dissolve half a cupful of scraps of castile or toilet soaps, or any hard white soap, in a cupful of water, and allow to cool.
This will make a soft-soap jelly. Stir into this when cold 3 heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered whiting. In this soak suitable pieces of cloth, as old flannel underwear, pieces of tablecloths, and the like, letting them absorb as much as possible. Wring them out so they will not drip, and allow them to dry. These are convenient polishing cloths for silver, as they are always ready.
Or moisten whiting with soapy water, rub it over the silver carefully, and allow it to dry on. Then rub it off with a very soft woolen or linen cloth.
Use a soft brush to remove the whiting from carvings or deep cuttings and rough surfaces of the larger silver articles.
Caution. - Care must be taken in polishing silver not to use too much force, as severe rubbing will wear solid silver and soon wear out the best of plated articles. - To Remove Stains and Discolorations. Methods recommended for cleaning discolored silver are boiling in suds or in water containing soda, sal soda, alum, cream of tartar, borax, or lye, or rubbing with dry salt, whiting, grated potatoes, or solutions of sulphuric acid, chloride of lime, alum, or cream of tartar.