Tarnishing occurs when the chemicals in pure silver or sterling silver jewellery react to moisture and sulphuric gases in the air. This causes a chemical reaction that results in your jewellery turning from a luscious and iridescent silver tone to a dull browny-red and copper colour.
Clean Silver with Vinegar
This cleaning agent is a great option for many things, including your tarnished silver. Mix 1/2 cup of white vinegar with 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a bowl of lukewarm water. Let the silver soak for two to three hours. Rinse with cold water and let airdry.
Tarnish is the oxidization that occurs when air-borne sulfurs and chlorides are present, causing a yellowish cast on the sterling silver. If left without being cleaned, the tarnish becomes brown and eventually turns a dark and iridescent purple/black.
Your silver jewelry turns a copper color because it's not actually solid silver. It's copper that's been plated with silver. Over time, as the silver wears away, the copper underneath becomes exposed. Besides having it re-plated, nothing you can do to fix the problem except ensuring you buy real solid silver next time.
When silver tarnishes, it's a surface discolouration caused by the interaction of oxygen (air) with the silver. As the British Assay Office explains it, “silver naturally interacts with oxygen and sulphur-bearing pollutants to create silver sulphide, resulting in a visible discoloration of the metal's surface.
A drop of nitric acid on a fake silver product will turn a greenish hue. If the acid becomes a cloudy grey, then the piece is real.
925 genuine silver contains 92.5% silver, which implies it will be doubtful to discolor, or will discolor more leisurely than a piece of jewelry that contains more alloy metal than silver. Eventually, after a period of time, you're likely going to see some level of tarnish on your real silver gems.
The first sign of dezincification of brass is a change in colour, from the yellow typically found in brass to the salmon pink of pure copper metal. The pink colour may then turn reddish and then brown if the surface copper corrodes to form cuprite.
The rainbow stain on Stainless Steel is what's known as "heat tint." Stainless Steel contains a small amount of chromium in it to help resist corrosion and rusting.
If you mean “can a person turn silver into gold?” the answer is no, currently. We do not possess the technology necessary to transform one element into another (with the very limited-case except of fission and fusion bombs).
For silverware, jewelry, and other small silver items, soak them in a glass bowl with a half-cup of distilled white vinegar and two tablespoons of baking soda. Let the silver soak for three hours, rinse the items, and dry and polish them with a microfiber cloth.
This is a classic, easy DIY silver cleaning recipe. Use non-gel and non-abrasive toothpaste. Squeeze a small amount of it on a soft cloth or paper handkerchief. Rub onto the jewellery or silverware with circular motions to polish it and clean off the tarnish.
Cleaning silver with Vinegar
Even the most tarnished pieces of silverware can come back to life just by using vinegar. The combination of bicarbonate of soda, aluminium foil and vinegar make for a deadly foe to tarnish and will leave your silverware looking beautiful once more.
The Magnet Test
"Silver is not noticeably magnetic, and exhibits only weak magnetic effects unlike iron, nickel, cobalt, and the like," says Martin. "If your magnet sticks strongly to the piece, it has a ferromagnetic core and is not silver." Fake silver or silver-plated items are generally made of other metals.
Real gold does not change color. If you observe discolored gold, then your gold jewelry is not real. You can also test it by applying droplets of vinegar or putting your gold jewelry underwater to see if it changes its color.
Pure silver is not susceptible to tarnish in a pure oxygen environment. However, the copper that is contained in 925 sterling silver may react to the ozone and hydrogen sulfide in the air and cause sterling silver to tarnish. Perfumes, hair sprays, and profuse sweating can also cause a quicker formation of tarnish.
In the early stages of tarnishing, as the thickness grows from 10 to 100 nanometres (nm), the colour changes from yellow through red-brown to blue. For thicknesses greater than about 100 nm, the colour is black, the true colour of silver sulfide (Selwyn 2004).
If your sterling silver tarnishes, that's actually a sign that it's real. Fake silver will lose its shine over time, and underneath can be any number of ugly cheap base metals that may turn your skin green. No amount of polishing will return that original shiny tone.
If you store your silver properly, it will take many many years for you to see any signs of tarnish; if it even tarnishes at all, but we'll go more into that later. The simplest way to put it is that it can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of years for your silver to tarnish.