Regarding cutlery in a royal palace or luxury setting, is there a finer way to dine than with silverware? Even in ancient civilisations, people have always recognised the value in silver, and have long been using it to make cutlery for eating.

A little-known fact about silver, is that it has anti-septic properties. Simply put it kills bacteria and germs. In addition to that, unlike other metals, silver isn’t toxic, which is precisely why it is safe to ingest food which has been in contact with it.

That said, as beautiful as it is, it’s not uncommon for silverware to tarnish over time and to lose its gorgeous shine. In this post, we’re going to look at ways in which you can combat time and usage and restore your cutlery back to its former glory!

Our favourite silverware cleaning method:

When it comes to cleaning delicate silver, it can be difficult to get the desired shine that you’re after. All you need to do is log onto the internet and you’ll find some of the most ridiculous cleaning methods. Tomato ketchup? Certainly, it might work well. However, imagine that in a Royal Palace setting: The Queen stumbles upon you smothering ketchup into her favourite, delicate silverware?!

“What are you doing?”

“I’m cleaning the silverware your highness.”

“With ketchup?”

That’s right, it sounds like a sure-way to get yourself fired. As such, we have set out to find the best cleaning method and the one that we are about to share with you seems to be the most successful.

Of course, there are a number of different silver cleaning products available on the market. However, not all of them seem to work as well as you’d like. Instead, you should try this method! It’s affordable and it’s easy and it yields the most fantastic results.

What you’ll need to give your silver the perfect shine:

  • Boiling water
  • 1 tblespoon of baking soda
  • 1 tblespoon of white salt
  • ½ a cup of white vinegar
  • Tinfoil
  • A medium sized soup bowl
  • A microfibre cloth for polishing

If you’re dealing with particularly delicate silver, then we would highly recommend that you clean one piece at a time. Yes, this is incredibly time consuming, however if you bundle a load of silverware into a bucket, you’ll likely end up scratching it.

Now, let’s move onto the preparation stage:

  • First of all, you’re going to want some boiling water at the ready
  • Following that, you should layer the inside of the bowl with your tinfoil. We would recommend covering the entire bowl (shiny-side facing outwards)
  • Add the salt and baking soda to the bottom of the bowl
  • Slowly add the white vinegar into the mix
  • Stir thoroughly until all of the granules have dissolved (this is to prevent scratching your delicate silverware)

Boil & wait:

  • Half fill the bowl with boiling water, and then add a piece of silverware into the mixture. You can use rubber tongs so that you don’t scratch the silver or burn your fingers.
  • Let it sit for a little while and then flip the silverware over so that both sides have been exposed to the tinfoil beneath

Polish carefully:

Once you’re satisfied that the silver has been soaking in this miracle mixture long enough, carefully remove it from the bowl. Following that, you must take your microfibre cloth and gently polish the silverware, using circular motions.

Instantly, you will notice any tarnishing of the silver fall away, and your original silver-sheen will be back to looking as good as new!

We would advise using the same mixture until the water begins to go cold. Then it might be worth prepping another mixture and repeating the same process again.

And there you have it: a simple and straightforward method for bringing the best out in your delicate silverware!

Conclusion

There are certainly other tried and tested methods which you can adopt. However, this is one that we have found to work particularly well for us.

If you are cleaning delicate silverware on behalf of someone else, it might be worth testing this method on some silver of your own beforehand. Or alternatively, you can ask their permission.

You might find that some people will only strictly want genuine silver-cleaning products to be used. However, most people will be open to trying tried and tested methods such as this one; particularly when the results are so incredible!