Silver is an amazing metal. The ancient Egyptians endowed it with unearthly, magical powers and pointed out amazing healing properties. Silver jewelry matches perfectly with a wide variety of stones and suits any skin tone or outfit. That is why many women love them so much.
Perhaps the only drawback of silver jewelry is that it darkens over time and becomes stained and unpleasant. If you are also a fan of silver jewelry, then it will be useful for you to learn how to clean a silver ring in order to return it to its original shine and charm.
Why it gets dark silver?
Metal can turn black due to various factors, such as storing jewelry in an overly humid environment. Silver will darken almost instantly upon contact with onions, table salt or some detergents.
Although this noble metal does not react to the action of solutions of alkalis and acids, it quickly darkens with prolonged exposure to hydrogen sulfide contained in the air.
With prolonged contact with the skin, silver jewelry also turns black, this happens, as scientists have proven, due to the composition of the sweat secreted by the body. Moreover, the less nitrogen in the human body, the faster the metal changes its color. And with a lack of sulfur in our body, silver jewelry darkens much less often and more slowly. By the way, it should be noted that many cosmetics contain sulfur, so the use of creams, lotions and other cosmetics can cause darkening of the silver ring.
Every woman who loves to wear silver should know how to properly care for it.
How to give freshness to silver jewelry?
Have you decided to clean your silver ring? There are several universal ways. You do not need to purchase any special cleaning products for this procedure.
- If your ring is just dirty, you can wash it in hot soapy water or a solution with the addition of dishwashing liquid. After holding the jewelry in this bath for some time, you can bring it to its proper form using a soft toothbrush. True, after such a care, the ring will not shine, and it is advisable to polish it later.
- An excellent folk remedy for cleaning silver jewelry is ordinary potatoes. You can dip the silver jewelry in the potato broth and then rinse it with water. An excellent result is obtained if the ring is held in a mixture of raw grated potatoes and water for several minutes. Then we polish the silver with a piece of woolen cloth.
- A mixture of peroxide and alcohol is also suitable for cleaning silver rings. The products are immersed in it for 20 minutes, after which they are wiped dry with a fleecy cloth.
If the ring has darkened...
You can buy special cleaning liquids in jewelry stores: you put a darkened ring in such a solution for a few minutes - and it is clean and shiny again. But even with the help of various home remedies, it will not be difficult to clean a darkened silver ring.
We clean the ring with tooth powder
Tooth powder is often used to clean silver rings. It has good abrasive properties, so that any dirt can be easily removed from silver. To do this, the powder is applied to the product for 30–40 minutes with a soft toothbrush, and then the discolored places are wiped with a fleecy napkin. Then the ring is rinsed with cool water and wiped dry with a cotton napkin.
To clean silver, you can use toothpaste, but it must first be mixed with ammonia and ordinary soda. By the way, only "classic" pastes are suitable for this procedure. All kinds of transparent and colored gels, as well as pastes with colored additives, will not help get rid of blackness.
We clean the ring with baking soda
Regular baking soda will help to perfectly cope with darkening and restore the lost shine to the silver ring. To do this, pour 1 teaspoon of baking soda into your palm and add 3-5 drops of water to it. Then carefully wipe the ring until shiny with a cotton pad with the resulting viscous gruel.
We clean the ring with table salt
For the cleaning procedure, salt is used only in a mixture with any detergent and baking soda. The solution can be prepared as follows: 1 tablespoon of any dishwashing detergent is diluted in a liter of water, a tablespoon of salt and soda is added to it. Darkened silver jewelry is dipped into the resulting soda-salt mixture. Then the solution is boiled for 20-30 minutes, until the silverware becomes light. After the end of the procedure, they should be rinsed with clean water. However, this method of cleansing is not suitable for rings with pearls or stones.
We clean the ring with citric acid
Silver rings without stones can be clarified with a 10% solution of ammonia or citric acid. To do this, the jewelry is placed in a solution, which is slightly warmed up for greater efficiency.
We clean the silver ring with stones
Since every woman has a lot of all kinds of jewelry in her cherished casket, if you need to put them in order, it doesn't hurt to know how to clean a silver ring with stones.
These gemstone rings are usually cleaned with special solutions such as Silver Cleaner. They not only will not spoil the silver jewelry, but also cover them with a special protective film. However, if there are no such universal remedies at hand, then ordinary grandmother's recipes will help.
You can independently clean silver encrusted with precious stones by preparing a fairly simple solution: dissolve shavings of laundry soap in clean water and add literally a few drops of ammonia. Bring the solution to almost a boil, then let it cool and apply the already cooled liquid to the ring using a soft bristled toothbrush. Remove blackness on metal using a cotton swab dipped in the same solution.
You can also use the following cleansing agent: dissolve 5 drops of ammonia in a glass of water. Then we moisten a piece of soft cloth in the resulting solution and wipe the ring with it. Even if the prepared product gets on the stones, it will not harm them.
But silver rings with pearls or amber are preferable to give for cleaning to specialists. These capricious stones are sensitive enough to various chemical solutions that they can be hopelessly spoiled.
After cleaning, it is advisable not to wear silver jewelry for several days, so that a natural protective film can form on the surface of the ring. Better yet, have a jeweler cover the rings with a special varnish.
Using our advice, you can easily clean your silver rings, giving jewelry made from this metal a unique shine and amazing shine.
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