Dear Lord! I was so shocked when I opened the butler pantry and found the silver items as you see below! The last time I checked it was a month ago which is our monthly cleaning of the butler pantry and they were still well "silver". We recently renovated the caregiver room and converted it to a butler pantry where shelves were installed to contain the formal dinnerwares, silvers and the party pieces. All the glasswares, dinnerwares and silver items are on the shelves. The room is ordinarily locked and is opened when we do the cleaning and polishing.
We've been experiencing very hot and humid days the past month with temperature reaching 37C and humidity making it feel like 41C. But this is soooo extreme right?
SILVERS, SULFIDES AND MOISTURE
What causes silver to tarnish is exposure to sulfides and moisture. It is humid in my country but where does the sulfide come from? there is naturally occuring hydrogen sulfides in the air but is our room supersaturated with it such that it resulted to extreme discoloration? Think, think, think!! google, google!! and bam!! Found out that white pigment used in paints are from lead sulfates! The room and newly installed shelves are all painted white. What more? Butler room is located above the garage! Even if our windows are closed, it is possible that amounts of sulphates emitted by the car engines add to it. No wonder!!
CLEANING SILVER
We cleaned the silver pieces with recommended commercial silver polish and silver wash by manual rubbing. This site gives good tips on caring, cleaning and storing silver pieces: Jeffrey Herman (http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/how-to-clean-silver/).
ANTI-TARNISH CLOTH BAGS
Yes, it brought back the luster but we have to protect these items by sotoring them inside the anti tarnish cloth bags that came with each item. Never use polyvinyl plastic bags. Authentic Silvercloth contains embedded silver particles will catch the sulphur gases that would otherwise tarnish the silver articles inside, causing the brown fabric to discolor to various shades of brown.
Sterling silver, stored properly, can be worn often and with minimal cleaning required making it very easy to care for.
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