I have a selection of silver items, a coffee pot, a tray, a salt and pepper pot etc. that I currently have no room to display, so I want to put it all in a box in the attic. I’ve been told by a friend that I need to be careful how I store it as silver tarnishes quite readily, and that the best way is to wrap it in acid-free tissue paper and pad it all out with bubble wrap.
Is this right? If so, how can I tell if tissue paper is acid-free or not? Would it be OK to wrap it in material, eg an old sheet? It’s a mixture of solid silver and silver plate, so does each type have different requirements? Any suggestions/experiences much appreciated.
Personally I wouldn’t bother. Focus on packing it in such a way that it does not get dented & bashed. If it tarnishes, so what?
If you don’t take it out of the attic for 300 years the tarnish will incerase it’s trade value (stupid eh?)
you can remove the tarnish easily enough by lining a bucket with aluminum foil, filling it with HOT water and tossing in some salt and (I think) baking soda. The solution gobbles up the tarnish, gets in ALL the crevices, does the job in seconds, and doesn’t remove any of the unoxydized silver.
You want to check on the formula…It’s been a few years since I did it, but it works like God himself has ordered the silver to be cleansed.
Never, ever do the aluminum and salt trick with a valuable piece of silver. Ions remain on the silver and cause it to deteriorate.
To store silver, first clean it (though don’t bother to polish it–it’ll just tarnish again anyway). Then, wrap it in tarnish-retardant cloths from a silver dealer, and put it in an airtight container.
Incidentally, Matchka is right that tarnished silver is the really elegant thing–being used regularly stops it from getting obscenely black, and that’s enough.