No tarnish

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today's blip is my Christening Cup from a few days ago, with the tarnish removed. Silver reacts over time to form a mucky black coating of silver sulfide, which while ugly does protect the silver from further corrosion. Silver sulfide isn't soluble in much other than strong acids so the normal way to get rid of it is to scrub it off with something abrasive and plenty of vigour... However if you can get your silver item wet then if you put it in a bowl of hot water in contact with aluminium and something to make the water nice and iconic, e.g. sodium hydrogen carbonate (baking soda), the sulphur atoms hop from the silver to the aluminium leaving your silver all white...! Clever stuff science...

Anyhow today's blip is the same silver cup, now sans-sulfide coating. If I polish it with something containing a wax to protect the silver and keep it dry and away from moisture it won't need de-tarnishing again for a few months. Apparently the advice is to use silver all the time and keep washing it otherwise it will just tarnish, no matter what you do. The V&A says even with the best museum grade protection it tarnishes very quickly...