How to Care for Sterling Silver Jewellery

Sterling silver definitely requires more care and attention than gold jewellery. Gold is inert, but silver is not. When silver reacts, it becomes something else. Often the answer is to polish away the reacted material, material that was once part of your jewellery. Here are some key things that will react with your silver:

• Fossil fuel emissions (because of sulphur)
• Felt and wool (because of sulphur)
• Mustard, eggs (because of sulphur)
• Rubber (because it is vulcanised with sulphur)
• Sulphurous baths (like onsen, rotenburo)
• Salt water (like the ocean, salt water pools)
• Perfumes, hairspray, hand creams
• Chlorinated water (pools, spas)
• Household cleaners
• Salt in general (it creates areas on the jewellery that trap moisture and accelerate any tarnishing)
• Even certain types of paper and packaging can effect it
• On top of all that, high humidity environments accelerate the reaction

Sterling silver also contains copper, which reacts too. The natural sweat and oils from your body can react with the copper in sterling silver which can cause a green colour on the skin or on the jewellery itself. So why include copper if it goes green..? It's a hardness problem. If a metal is soft, it is damaged easily. Aside from surface scratches, depending on where the damage occurs, this can cause gemstones falling out or filigree designs to break. If you've ever wondered where "925" comes from, it's because the silver content is 92.5%, the remaining 7.5% is copper. Without getting too technical, the copper and silver work together in sterling silver jewellery to provide the best material strength.

Frequent wear can help prevent any black tarnish or buildup on areas where it comes into contact with your skin. Apparently you can use hot water, baking soda and alfoil to move the oxide from the silver to the aluminium, I have tried this, I think it had a minimal effect. This might clear up a silver bar if you happened to have one. Careful when you add the water to the baking soda, it bubbles up! I have access to jeweller's "pickle" (sparex) which does a better job at making silver shine. For you at home, instead of working with a dangerous acid like sparex, I would recommend you use a soft brush and soapy warm water or polishing cloth when possible. If safe to do so for the gemstone and setting, citric acid in water or vinegar. The reason I wouldn't use something like sandpaper, is because it will change the surface. The finest sandpaper I found in shops is 3000 grit, I polish to a minimum of 15,000 grit, and use brandishing to make a mirror finish. 3000 grit sandpaper will look dull and is not suitable for cleaning shiny jewellery. I also would not use high percentage acetic acid (vinegar) to clean the jewellery either, working with a high concentration of acetic acid is dangerous.

If you have experienced problems with your silver, feel free to get in touch. Delicate settings or gems also come into play when deciding the cleaning method. I'm happy to share my care tips for your piece. Feel free to leave it as a comment below.