Featured Polishing advice

I have this beautiful, large Tiffany sterling bowl, and it has spots in the bowl that I can't polish out. They were darker than they are now, but I have gone as far as I can with silver polish. The spots are smooth to the touch and don't at all feel like pits. I have used Wright's and Brilliant Metal Polish, which usually works for difficult tarnish. I haven't polished the rest of the bowl yet, but it looks like it will polish easily.

Any suggestions for getting those spots out?
Thanks!

 

Try wiping it down with something like mineral spirits. Could be foreign matter stuck to the surface and resistant to silver polish.

 

OR well on the way to being pitting......

 

I'm wondering whether what happened is that it was washed and then put away not completely dry.

 

The piece had bad pits when it was made.

 

It feels very smooth, not like pits. It looks to me more like a stain, perhaps from some acidic food?

 

Have been polishing silver salts and salt spoons for decades, that looks like salt pitting to me - likely someone used it regularly for salted nuts, leaving them in there for extended periods...


This shows some spots of fairly deep pitting on your piece:





Here are some salt spoons with similar pitting - these have been polished many times and some of the pitting removed with an old trick my silver mentor taught me (not useful for your piece). Some only had a few small spots, others had areas where the salt even left crystalline shapes, and some still had green crustation from the salt - the grape pattern spoon and the one to the right of it were so pitted that the bowls were left with an orange-peel texture front and back. There was valid reason for gilding and glass liners in the majority of silver salts (pitting will penetrate the gilding too) - and it was the reason that it was recommended to remove the salt from silver at end of day, replacing it the next...






Personally, if mine, would polish it as best I could and just live with the pitting - a good silver restorer could buff most of it out with little damage to the monogram, but I wouldn't let just any idiot with a buffing wheel get near it...


~Cheryl

 

Calling @MrNate and @gregsglass - can you help???

 

I have a few sterling bowls with these kinds of spots, too.
If you look at these marks with a loupe, you will see that the dark spots are areas of loss or pitting, as @DragonflyWink has stated.

Some of the minor ones could be polished away, and improve the overall look, but you'll never get rid of them all.
I say it is fabulous even with the spots!

 

Ok, thanks everyone. I will live with it as is. I did look on-line for silver restorers, and saw one that specializes in antique silver and talks like he knows what he's doing, but I don't think I want to go to that expense.

 

It's a pretty thing, love the 'de' in the monogram, I'd just think of the spots and scratches as part of its history, like the engraving...

~Cheryl

 

I've had my share of experiences with stubborn little marks on sterling. Here's what I've adopted as best practice:

I use silver cream with a q-tip and a lot of patience. I try to keep my pattern of rubbing in the same direction, so I don't start making a rubbing pattern in different directions (sometimes it's noticeable if you rub too hard or move against the pattern of the silver, circular for example). Sometimes it will take a great amount of time to rub away just one single dot, and it might appear that you aren't making progress. I've encountered very few marks that can't be eliminated, it just takes patience.

I have also found some marks after removal leave a calcified remain, and I haven't had much luck dealing with these.

I have also experimented (on low quality pieces) with a dab of tarn-x on a q tip...I'm sure I'll unleash the wrath of the forum if I recommend that, but I will say that for a few items I tried it on (basically lightly rubbing with a q-tip on the stubborn spot) it increased my speed to polish something and I didn't notice any difference between other pieces where I used the more labor intensive method. Personally I haven't adopted this method because tarn-x smells so terrible and I actually enjoy (for the most part) the long sessions bringing something back to life.

 

Thank Mr. Nate, I was sure you would have advice

 

Hi,
I would use an expert to remove the pitting. I have used rouge polishing to clear most of the spots but had to result to experts to remove some very nasty spots. It is a wonderful bowl.
I would check out some sort of plastic bowl to fit in your bowl so no more damage occurred. I have found a few glass bowls that fit my sterling bowls as well.
greg

 

Thanks Mr. Nate. I have used a similar q-tip method when there are 1 or 2 little spots in the bowl of a spoon, but this bowl I think has too many spots, and would likely, as you note, leave a bunch of rub marks where each spot used to be.

 

AND, love your collection!!!

 

Thanks, Aquitaine - they're mine now, but were my late Mom's, I did research, catalog, and polish them all for her though - there's well over 300, most silver, but other materials as well; plus 3 or 4 dozen of mine, mostly masters rather than individual.




~Cheryl

 

W H O A!!!!! And I thought you just had those other few!!!!! THAT'S a COLLECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hehe - if only they were the sum of it, but they're only a part of my spoon obsession...

~Cheryl

 

@MrNate nad other Forum Members just a quick question on the Polishing.

Once you finsh polishing it with the cream, do you give the silver a wash with water/soap?
or do you you just clean it with a damp cloth? Will this increase the tarnish because of the moisture

I have one which just seems to be shining. But everytime i use polish on it it cleans further and the cloth is black as night. Which means there is still tarnish in the design and needs some more work. But i was wondering if i used water to wash it before once again polishing it would it ok