QuestionI bought several new pieces of inexpensive sterling silver jewelry on ebay recently. A couple of the pieces seemed 'dirty' and so I dropped the whole lot of rings and earrings into a bowl of regular full-strength rubbing alcohol to clean. I left the jewelry in the alcohol about 24 hours. Now all of the silver seems cloudy or tarnished. I saw your recent answer about harming rhodium plating on sterling, so I suspect this may be what happened, but I'm wondering if you can confirm this and if so, what can I do inexpensively make the silver shiny again. I have already tried a silver polishing cloth, but with very little results achieved.
AnswerEsther, thanks for this question.
Full strength household rubbing alcohol does not cause discoloration of dulling of silver. Also, the alcohol should not affect a rhodium plated surface. Since you have tried a polishing cloth and had little if any success, I wonder if there is some other type of coating on the silver?
This is one of those situations where without the jewelry in my hands to examine I am very, very limited in trying to provide an answer directly accurate to your situation. The best I can do is give you something more general. With good fortune, the answer may apply to your items.
If the alcohol did affect the surface of the jewelry, there may be a thin coating of a protective lacquer, clear acrylic or similar material. Coatings like these are used all the time by crafts workers to protect delicate surfaces and help prevent discoloration of metals such as copper. An inexpensive silver jewelry item may have a lacquer coating for that very reason. While alcohol is not a "lacquer solvent", a full day in the alcohol could have some affect on the coating such as dulling the appearance.
If there is one item in the bunch with no stones or other decoration which might be damaged, you might try a soak in a finger nail polish remover. If there is lacquer coating this soak will very possibly reveal it. If the coating is there, there is not much to do but dissolve off all the lacquer and then get out the cloth to shine up the silver. Now exposed without a protective coating, the silver will behave naturally to the environment and tarnish in a normal fashion over time. The tarnish may be removed with a good silver cloth or cleaner.
Esther, you may have seen the "silver dip" types of cleaners. These are used to dip the silver for a few seconds only to remove light tarnish. Please do not use these cleaners. A little too much time in the cleaner and you silver will gain an ugly grayish/dull white coating and must at that point be professionally polished to restore a decent shine. A quick dip will do ok but the stuff is quite strong and it is very easy to overdo.
I do wish you the best with the silver. Perhaps the eBay seller can tell you if the silver has an anti-tarnish coating of some sort. Let me know of any success.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
