I inherited some lovely silver and silverplate pieces. Polished 'em all up nicely and I have them either stored or displayed for now. I would very much like to USE them, though, as I don’t really get the point of having dining stuff you don’t use. So some quick questions:
I am totally making the assumption that silver, even old stuff, is generally food-safe. After all, we eat off silverware on a fairly regular basis. However - I’m a little concerned about the soldered joints on a few pieces and the insides of pitchers and coffee pots and creamers and such. Some of the insides don’t look like silver - they’re kind of “brushed” and they don’t seem to tarnish. The soldered bits are black and don’t seem to react to my diligent polishing, so I’m betting they’re not silver. What are the chances that there’s lead or somethign equally icky in there?
Silver is not supposed to come in contact with salt, because it pits, right? Which brings this question - can I use my silver salt cellars without ruining them? And what about the salts that occur in other foods? Should I be taking some protective measures?
Anything else I need to know that I haven’t thought of?
It takes longer than a normal meal for this to happen.
So if after the meal, you put any leftover food into other containers, and wash & dry the silver before storing it, you shouldn’t have a problem with this.
Same with the salt cellars; fill them with salt & use them at your meal, then empty the remaining salt out & wipe clean before storing your silver salt cellars.
Some foods can cause silver to tarnish fairly quickly. I find our sterling forks get blackened at the tips from eating foods with suphur compounds like eggs and some vegetables, even though they are washed right after each meal. Nothing a bit of polish can’t handle, though.
About fifteen years ago, I discovered that it was cheaper for me to buy box lots of silver and silverplate flatware at auctions than it was to buy new stainless flatware. As a result, our everyday flatware is a cool and funky assortment of antique silverplate.
For the most part, it stays clean and untarnished through everyday use. We don’t put it in the dishwasher. When it eventually starts darkening, I give it a quick hit with some polish.
Thanks - what I’m concerned about is the coffeepot and the water pitcher more than anything. I’m not sure what the lining is - it looks like silver, but it doesn’t seem to tarnish, and it’s sort of a brushed finish. Also, there are some pieces - the lid of the coffee pot, for example, and the place where the spout joins the pot - that are black metal that doesn’t seem to be silver. I’m concerned that it could be lead or lead solder.
The stuff that looks like silver but doesn’t tarnish could be “German silver” or “nickel silver”, which has the white glow of silver but is actually a nickel alloy.
The solder joints could possibly be lead solder, but on a nice silver coffee service, I doubt the manufacturer would have used that; it’s more likely to be silver solder, which is an alloy of silver, tin, and traces of other metals.
You can get lead testers at just about any paint store, or Home Depot if you prefer. They’re a solvent-treated brush that changes color when in contact with lead. They were made with lead paint in mind, but they work with metals, pottery glazes, and other materials, and that would be a cheap and effective way of finding out if the inside plating and the solder contain lead.
