Danny Seo reminded us of an old trick we've read about (and have always meant to try) to remove tarnish in a way that doesn't use nasty chemicals.
It involves hot water, aluminum foil, soap and salt. How easy is that? Check out the details on his blog.
Yeah, that aluminum foil trick cleans off the tarnish easily enough and for smooth surfaces like that Revere bowl, I guess it's OK but this method also strips every bit of patina out of the crevices of heavily-patterned antiques and gives historic old pieces the bland, unnatural glow of wedding-gift silver. That's why I stick with plain old Wright's silver cream, which has no petrochemicals and which leaves my antique silver looking its age.
Of course, the best way to keep silver looking good is to use it all the time, which approach is unavoidable in my apartment because the place is so small there's no room for both "everyday" silver & "good silver." Thus great-grandmother's wedding sterling now gets constant use.
Magnaverde.
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Still, I like it. I suppose it doesn't remove any silver - if anything, tarnished silver is reduced into metallic silver again.
I'm sure it will tarnish real soon again in the crevices :)
Soda works fine as well. Some dishwashers have an aluminum basket for silverware. Works the same way. The aluminum corrodes, the silver is reduced (de-corrodes, if you like).
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