Tarnish, No Tarnish!:thumbup:

[mudpuppy]

I took all this dirty tarnished/dull silver tonight and put it in my tumbler with some dryer lint, a paper towel, water, and a squirt of regular old hand soap....I let it tumble for 2hrs....then I checked...Not all were this clean, so I put them back in...none of these are key dates..I remember reading a post from a long time ago a guy used dryer lint for his wheats and they turned out just like fresh from a pocket! Not all shiny copper, but like a nice 'pocket patina', so I gave it a try.... maybe a squirt of car wax tumble after?
Mud..

 

[tabman]

Mud that's a good tip! I discovered that Navy Jelly with clean up heavily tarnished war nickels in nothing flat.

tabman

 

[cosmic]

I posted about doing this a while ago , when I was doing my laundry after a outing.. Pulled out my pocket and I seen the lint and figured the dryer lint was the same so into the tumbler it went.. Works great...

 

[mudpuppy]

I couldnt remember who to give credit to for this idea, I remembered your post though! Thanks for jumping on back on account of I have a question about your method..

You tumbled your pennies with the dryer lint dry right? Or did you add a bit of water? Good to see you again!
Mud

 

[cosmic]

Water also

 

[amberjack]

copper in with the silver ? they will come out dull .

if the silver is a bit crusty soak over night in some CLR then some good dish washing liquid in the tumbler dash of water I have found some brands leave a dull finish and others shinny, important to to have media that has sharp points from what I have seen anyway

that's what I do with silver take it for what its worth.

I clean my jewellery the same way like the stuff I wear and it turns out great

AJ

 

[mudpuppy]

No, AJ...no copper in with the silver..!.

Cosmic did this with his wheat pennies, and I tried it with some of my silver just to see...I want to shine up my scrap silver dimes and do a trade for some silver halfs and Q's...curb appeal kind of thing!
Mud

 

[amberjack]

yeah shinny sells

I fiddled with lots of different set ups till I found what worked for me , but we all find something that works hey

good luck with the trade !!

AJ

 

[WIHawker]

Baking soda, water, a soft tooth brush, and elbow grease is what I use.

 

[HaroldILL.]

What type of tumbler are you using? I was thinking about a Harber frieght,But they have 2 types a barrel and a top load one?

 

[JimGilmore]

When you tumble your silver have you noticed it to be dark grey, Thats little bits of silver that are being scrapped off.

 

[John(Tx)]

the dryer lint...lol I have been using 1 cup vinegar to 1 tablespoon salt in my tumbler to clean coins, works great. Just remember to separate from the pennies or the clad will come out like gold coins...ha ha Tumble them for 30 to 45 minutes. HH

 

[PSS1963]

Wow, so many ideas . . .

Mud, your silver looks great but the skeptical side of me has to know . . . what is the dryer lint actually bringing to the party? Have you tried this with just the silvers and some water? Can we trust you that this isn't just belly button lint?

Naval Jelly (or in Mud's case navel jelly) is just phosphoric acid - same stuff they put in Coke and Pepsi for flavor balance.

"When you tumble your silver have you noticed it to be dark grey, Thats little bits of silver that are being scrapped off" . . . its probably silver sulfide which is what tarnish is.

Damp baking soda rub is a good method . . . cleans without scratching. Good followup to an HCl dip too.

To this menagerie of ideas I'll toss in one of my own . . . a dry tumble with Grape Nuts as the medium. I experimented a bit in the 80's with wheat pennies . . . it does a good job of removing tarnish and other deposits but can't scratch the metal.

-pete