You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
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..
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...
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
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
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
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
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.
maybe a squirt of car wax tumble after?
