Tarnishing silver

Why does my silver jewellery and silverware turn black?

Sterling silver jewellery has turned black from as far back as even the oldest Jewellers can remember. We all remember our grandparents forever polishing their silverware for those fancy teas, yet after the last time they were polished, they weren't used again yet still turned the patchy black silver. Its not that the jewellery or the silverware is dirty, it has tarnished which is a chemical reaction. 

Silver reacts with sulphur and that then creates silver sulfide appears in what are yellow, brown and black patches, this is know as tarnished. 

There are so many factors that come in to play when it comes to this tarnishing and the most common ones we see are household bleach/Domestos. This tarnishes silver. Very strong perfume, very acidic skin types, heavily clorinated or salted pool water and sometimes evern the fabric the item is on. 

The best way to handle your silver jewellery and to try avoid it tarnishing is that afyer you have worn it, wash the item down with some mild soap, rinse thoroughly and pat dry and then leave it out for a while to air dry further. 

Should your items be tarnishing, you do get a dip that you can use but do not add pearls or stone jewellery items in to the dip as you can damage them

If your jewellery is black and the dips have not worked then it will be best to take your jewellery in to a manufacturing Jewellers such as Cameron's Jewellers and we will then do an industrial polish on your items to restore the silver colour and from there you can maintain the finish yourself.