water/land silver cleaning

[UNCLENICK]

After repeated attempts with, lemon juice, baking soda, electrolysis, nothing has worked that well. INSTEAD of muriatic/hydrochloric acid, I recently found this stuff called ACID MAGIC. ANyone ever tried any acid before? I guess the Acid Magic is way, way less dangerous than the typical muriatic stuff. Thanks hh and safe diving,

Nick

 

[stevemc]

Dilute the muratic acid about 1/2 or 1/3 strength. Be careful when you add the acid to the water that it doesnt splash. Leave it in until it stops fizzing and check it, maybe a few minutes. Rinse it good. If not all cleaned keep doing it. It wont get the black tarnish off, just the crust. It doesnt do anything to silver, but dont do this to pennies newer than 1981, or they will be eaten up, or any clad coins. Only silver coins. 1 gallon of pool muratic acid should last you a long time.

 

[Sandman]

Ditto about the muratic acid. Be very careful with it. Rinse the coils well and air dry not touching each other.

 

[petersra]

After repeated attempts with, lemon juice, baking soda, electrolysis, nothing has worked that well. INSTEAD of muriatic/hydrochloric acid, I recently found this stuff called ACID MAGIC. Anyone ever tried any acid before? I guess the Acid Magic is way, way less dangerous than the typical muriatic stuff. Thanks hh and safe diving,

Nick

Show us a picture of what you are trying to achieve and what the results have been using the methods you say don't work well. Are you trying to get crusty crud off or return the luster to silver that has turned black or been stained? I have no idea how Acid Magic works. However, if you have silver of significant value, like a key date coin or Spanish cob, don't use acids on it at all, or you will take away some of it's value. If you are trying to return the luster to a somewhat inexpensive silver ring, some of the methods that you say don't work, actually do if you do it right. The least damaging methods are very, very slow, so lets see what you are working with and what you are looking to achieve. HH, Ralph

 

[UNCLENICK]

Thanks All...Ralph, I dont have a camera anymore, but what I'm trying to do is not absolutly trying to make them brand new, but trying to get them somewhat cleaner. They have so much black oxidation, I guess you could call it, that you cloudnt tell what they are. The electrolysis after doing it for an extended period still didnt remove much of anything. NOW, in the past it has on some silver coins, but I have a half dozen that are bastards. And yes I would never, ever do it to a cob, and or key date. Thank you for any and all help! HH

Nick

 

[petersra]

Thanks All...Ralph, I dont have a camera anymore, but what I'm trying to do is not absolutly trying to make them brand new, but trying to get them somewhat cleaner. They have so much black oxidation, I guess you could call it, that you cloudnt tell what they are. The electrolysis after doing it for an extended period still didnt remove much of anything. NOW, in the past it has on some silver coins, but I have a half dozen that are --deleted--s. And yes I would never, ever do it to a cob, and or key date. Thank you for any and all help! HH

Nick

OK, in the "For What its Worth" category, here is a link to a silver cleaning post in "The Tool Shed" section of the forum. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,366193.0.html I am sure there must be other methods posted in that section, but you can try this method if you like. It is not that hard to do and somewhat different from the methods you tried already. I am sure a professional restorer would cringe with pain, seeing how this is done using salt in the water, but you can see by the photos, that it worked for me. Not sure if I said it or not in the post, but I had to lightly buff some of the silver with a soft (T Shirt) after the cleaning/cooking was completed, and I also reprocessed one of the rings that the stain was more difficult to remove. Hope it helps. Ralph