Tips on removing tarnish from Sterling silver or Gold filled jewelry

I asked an expert online for advice regarding the above (Thank you Thomas!), you might find this useful:

1. It is hard to polish chains (sterling silver or goldfilled) with polishing cloth because chains are made of links and the cloth only touches the outside.

2. Storing jewelry in Ziplock bags certainly help to reduce tarnishing.

3. Thomas provided a link to a company well known for silver care product (and can be used for goldfilled too):

http://www.nancysilver.com/care_prods/jc1.htm

The Hagerty Silver Jewel Clean from above can remove tarnish for both silver and goldfilled. But to restore the shine, you will need to follow up with a wipe with a silver polishing cloth after cleaning.

4. Below is a very interesting method which I definitely will try. For sterling silver, this method will work well and leave the silver shiny:

a. Place heavy aluminum foil in the bottom of a plastic dish deep enough so jewelry may be covered with liquid. The pan cannot be made of metal!

b. Pour very hot water into the plastic pan. The water should not be boiling hot but almost boiling.

c. Add baking soda(washing soda also, bicarbonate of soda).

d. Place the jewelry onto the aluminum metal. You will see slight bubble formation and smell the smell of sulfur. The tarnish is removed quickly.

e. After a while, you will need to place a fresh piece of the aluminum into the pan; the previous will become coated with residue and will not work for tarnish removal anymore.

From Thmoas: This is a messy method but does work very well and the silver will be as shiny as it was before the tarnish coated the surface. Rinse the jewelry and dry and store properly. I have not tried this method with gold filled. You might want to try and see if it works. I have cleaned tea pots and silver cups this way and these were black in tarnish. The items became very silver again in a few minutes. You will need to keep the water hot, add soda as needed and keep the aluminum fresh and clean.

Interesting, isn't it? t's definitely worth a try! But I hope the method does not corrode the stones and pearls.