3/14/2023 0 Comments Old silver coins for sale on ebayThere were a number of points in your other post that I cant seem to find now that I wanted to address. If the boiling hot chemical solution poured over the silver object is strong enough to *get rid of the green tarnish & pitting *, then how can the original *stain* not be affected? Sounds like magic. If they were brand new, they look great, but if antique, they are just too slick in my opinion. From what I see here, the watches look a bit overcleaned. Also, what chemical are you using to get the black back in the crevases after the chemical cleaning?Īll of this reminds me of a thread from years ago where an alleged expert/dealer was giving advice on cleaning valuable antique schrimshaw and he was telling novices that it was OK to use fine sandpaper to clean up dirty antique scrimshaw.Īs with any antique, the least invasive approach is the safest. Unless you are using a wheel please tell me you are not using a wheel. Multitudes of fine scratches are going to take more than a light buff to make them go away. Your link does not even mention how all this affects antique silver. *The light buff we do afterwards on the outside is necessitated by the multitudes of fine scratches the cases have accumulated over the years, not by any etching caused by the cleaning.* How do you know what is going on at a molecular level when you are boiling the chemicals and pouring it over the varied tarnished silver? Keep in mind there are different silver formulas 800, 925, 935, 950, that have been used over the years. Once removed by overzealous polishing the silver can never be added back to a prized piece, particularly a piece with engraving.īaking soda, aluminium foil & water with heat is exactly what a chemical cleaning involves. It is sad to see an engraved watch that a knowledgeable person can tell from the condition of the hinges has hardly been carried but the engraving has been practically polished and buffed off completely by someone attempting to remove a heavy layer of tarnish. We do buff very, very lightly with jewelers rouge to shine a bit after the dip. I lost no additional detail on the engraving with this method. The watch shown in the attached picture is a Civil War Era Waltham Ellery that was tarnished to the point of verdigris with a certain amount of loss of detail from being carried before we restored it. We restore hundreds of antique silver key wind watches a year and I use this method several times a week.Īny polishing removes a certain amount of silver and when you are looking to remove thick tarnish from an item that has not had attention in 100 years you will remove silver and consequently detail with any rubbing method and have a very difficult time accessing the crooks and crannies. The method I described is the best way to clean silver and retain any original engraving or design that I have ever found for heavily tarnished complex pieces.
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