How beautiful are the items of silver with gold plating, whether it's jewelry, interior or cutlery! But, like many other things, these products lose their charm over time, fade, become covered with greyish or greenish tinge. That this does not happen, and your exquisite products always remained shiny and beautiful, you need to know how to properly clean silver with gilding.
Known methods of cleaning silver and gold are not suitable here, since the probability of spoiling the gilding is high. There are several options for grooming just behind the gilded silver, giving it shine and purity. But, before we proceed to consider these options, let us remember several rules:
- You can clean silver with gilding only with dry suede;
- before cleaning gilded silver, it must be gently wiped with a soft sponge or cotton pad dipped in turpentine or alcohol: medical, ethyl or denatured; this procedure is absolutely safe for gilding and will help remove stains, dust and grease from the products;
- Instead of turpentine and alcohol, you can use table vinegar - dilute 2 tablespoons. vinegar in 1 liter of water, put silver in this solution with gilding for 15 minutes, and then wipe with chamois; You can also simply sponge soaked in diluted vinegar (2 tablespoons per 1 tbsp water) to clean the product, and then dry it with dry suede.
Methods of care for gilding
- With the help of wine alcohol. Wine alcohol perfectly helps to get rid of darkening and stains on the gilding, and, in addition, it is safe for gilded products. Just moisten the sponge in it and rub it with silver. And then polish up the shine with suede.
- With the help of beer. Yes, the most ordinary beer. Do not worry about how to clean the gilding, but just take a bottle of beer from your husband's stocks, pour into a bowl and soak the gilded product in it for 30 minutes. Then wash the thing under the tap with running water, dry it and shine it to suede.
- Using a soap solution with ammonia added. This method is used to clean the greenery. The solution is prepared as follows: for 1 liter of warm water take 1 tsp. means for washing dishes or grated soap and 6 drops of ammonia. In the resulting solution, leave the silver with gilding for 30 minutes, then rinse under running water, dry and dry with chamois. The main thing is not to over-rest things in solution, so that the gilding does not get off.
- With the help of egg yolks and water. To a well-beaten egg yolk, 1 tablespoon is added. zhavelevoy water sponge with this mixture to wipe gilding and brushing suede.
Zhawel water is a solution of salts of potassium hydrochloric and hypochlorous acids. Under this name, the product you will not find either in the pharmacy or in the hardware store. But it is produced by various companies under other trademarks. So, by buying "Belizna" or "Domestos gel", you can be sure that this is the right water for the water.
What can not be cleaned with gilded silver?
In order not to spoil the gilding on silver objects, do not clean them with the following means:
- abrasive substances, because even the softest of them can damage the gilding;
- chalk and dental powder, as they also refer to abrasive substances.
As you can see, caring for gilding is not a complicated matter, which will allow you to keep the shine and impeccable appearance of your favorite gilt items for a long time.
And remember that silver with gilding should serve you as much as possible, take off all your decorations before bathing, bath. Keep gilded jewelry and objects separately from each other and from other products, so that they can not be scratched inadvertently.