How To Clean Your Sterling Silver Jewelry At Home With Baking Soda

Hey there! Local science guy here. So what causes the tarnishing color on the surface of sterling silver is actually silver sulfide (Ag2S), which is black. When a thin coat of it lines the surface of silver, it darkens it. There’s 2 ways you can remove this. You can buff out the surface through polishing (which can remove some of the silver) OR you can turn the silver back using this method (which preserves the silver). The aluminum (Al) and baking soda (NaHCO3) form a “bridge” between the silver and pulls the sulfur attached to the silver off because Aluminum loves to bond with Sulfur, creating Aluminum Sulfide (Al2S3). You can do this with cold water too, but the boiling water acts as a catalyst and causes the reactions to happen a lot faster. It’s important that the silver makes some contact with the aluminum to make sure the process of electrolysis happens. After after a while, the sulfur bonded to the silver is carried through the water/baking soda solution and will bond to the aluminum instead, leaving your silver to be alone. Bam! Silver? ~brilliant & clean~ Tarnish? ~gone!~ Edit: H2SO4 to NaHCO3 2nd Edit: Wow! I come back a year later to see 2.2k likes! Thank you all! I hope you’ve found this information helpful :) I’ve noticed some comments below mentioning this method not working: Please be aware that this works on REAL STERLING SILVER! I would not try this method on plated jewelry! Some cheap jewelry is an alloy of copper and other metals which can oxidize and turn green when exposed to water/other chemicals. That stuff is usually coated with a silver or gold colored paint to give the appearance of real, solid jewelry. Please be aware that this method could damage those kinds of jewelry, and can’t really help the tarnishing on that. Best of luck everyone! :)

No exaggeration this made my rope chain look brand new. Dang, thanks for this bro

Just tried this baking soda foil method to clean my 15+ years tarnished neglected Tiffany’s bracelet & necklace. Worked amazingly well! Now I can wear them again. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you I've watched 5 videos on this exact method and nobody has said to put the shiny side out. Perfect.

Forgot to take my silver necklace off at the hot springs (grade A tarnishing sulfur) and this worked amazing! Took both the chain and pendant from blacker than my soul to sparkling silver again. So this works! Thank you :)

Thanks for putting a GIANT smile on my silver jewelries faces! 😃

This worked SO well on some super tarnished sterling silver jewelry I had laying around! Thank you!!!

I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE THIS INFORMATION. THANKS!

Thanks! I got my silver Tiffany necklace and pendant clean! I haven't been able to wear it for years it was so tarnished. Looks brand new!

wow, I am so impressed at how easy, fast and cheap this process is! And my vintage ring now looks brand-new! Thank you so much for this video :)

Effective use of speed-up. Kudos. Viewer can see that you're really doing everything (no trickery), but it just gets through the obvious parts quickly. Not all how-to videos are as straightforward and unpretentious. Good job!

I used this method 50 years ago to clean my silver cutlery and had completely forgotten about it! I'm about to try it again! THANK YOU!!

Thankyou for showing how to do this. Way easier then how I was doing this and way faster and better results. Great video!

Omg 😳… the way this TRULY WORKS!! Thank you … it’s such a gem 💎

Thank you so much . It worked for my jewelry . I followed the steps . I’m grateful to you for making this video ❤️

I was truly hesitant to try this since the last thing from the internet ruined my bracelet. This truly works! My lions head charm is 25 years old. It was blue/black. This process brought my charm back from being antiqued!

Tried this right now, and it worked 🎉. So simple and so effective, thank you.

Used this on a ring I got as a kid 25 years ago and it brought it back to life. Thank you. ❤

Wow! It cleaned my earrings INSTANTLY!!! I've been trying for years to find a cleaning method. Couldn't THANK YOU enough!

I had 2 old rings that were very intricate cut, very blackened, I had no hope this would work. I changed the water and soda three times, but they turned out looking new !!! I was flabbergasted!! Thank you !