Authentic Pacific Silvercloth® FAQ's
What is Authentic Pacific Silvercloth®?
AS THE EMBEDED SILVER PARTICLES IN PACIFIC SILVERCLOTH ARE ESSENTIAL TO PROVIDE TARNISH PREVENTION, AND DUE TO NUMEROUS COST INCREASES OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS FOR SILVER (AS A RESULT OF MORE AND MORE DEMAND FOR SILVER FROM VARIOUS INDUSTRIES), WE HAVE HAD TO GREATLY INCREASE OUR PRICE FOR THE FABRIC TO OUR CUSTOMERS DUE TO A RECENT MUCH LARGER PRICE INCREASE FOR US. LAST YEAR THERE WAS AN INCREASE AND WE ONLY RAISED OUR PRICE TO CUSTOMERS BY THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF OUR INCREASED COST WITH NO ADDITIONAL PROFIT. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS INCREASE COUPLED WITH THE LAST INCREASE, DOES REQUIRE US TO MAKE A BIGGER JUMP IN PRICING IF WE WANT TO CONTINUE PROVIDING THIS MUCH RESPECTED AND VALUED FABRIC BY-THE-YARD AS WELL AS OUR SEWN PRODUCTS. Not all advertised silver cloth is authentic Pacific Silvercloth®...
Pacific Silvercloth® is a widely recognized brand name that has a long history of preventing tarnishing of sterling silver and silver plated articles for over 130+ years. However, like the brand name "Kleenex" which is regularly used to refer to any brand of tissue, Pacific Silvercloth®, a tarnish-preventing fabric, is being used to sell other manufacturers' tarnish-resisting' fabrics, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes due to a lack of knowledge. So how can you tell you're getting the "real thing?"
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Pacific Silvercloth® is a 100% cotton flannel that has embedded silver particles...it is not chemically treated. It is the embedded silver particles that make Pacific Silvercloth® truly a preventative fabric and why it lasts indefinitely.
Authentic Pacific Silvercloth® is always brown because the embedded silver particles themselves will discolor to various hues of brown over the years as they catch the hydrogen sulfide gases and other pollutants in the air that would otherwise tarnish the silver articles inside. Other manufacturers' products are not embedded with silver but are treated with other metals, such as zinc, and do not discolor. So, because Pacific Silvercloth® is always brown, you can be assured that any other color is not authentic; however, the other manufacturer's fabric is also available in brown, so to identify which fabric you may be looking at, the below info will make it obvious.
Authentic Pacific Silvercloth® has, for about 33 of the 38+ years we have been working with it, been between 36" - 39" wide, with the understanding from the manufacturer that it would never be less than 36" wide. With a change in finishing plants being used to produce Pacific Silvercloth a few years back, the width has increased to about 46", allowing for greater use of a yard of fabric. Other fabrics treated with zinc are always much wider (as much as 58"); and, as other manufacturers' products are also available in brown and at first glance look very similar to Pacific Silvercloth®, you can identify authentic Pacific Silvercloth® by its 46" width.
Don't be fooled...
Pacific Silvercloth® is the only true tarnish preventative fabric on the market as it is the only silver cloth that has embedded silver particles. Other fabrics are treated with a zinc alloy (which unlike silver, breaks down over time), and although most sellers won't say so, it is considered tarnish resistant (and they don't tell you what it's treated with). They will also claim that their 'silver cloth' will never stop working (which is actually true of Pacific Silvercloth®), yet here at SilverGuard we get calls regularly from silver owners who were looking for brown Pacific Silvercloth® and found a brown flannel silver cloth fabric, either in a store or online, that they mistakenly assumed was Pacific Silvercloth®. After a time, they notice their silver is still tarnishing, which did not happen with other pieces of silver they have had stored in authentic Pacific Silvercloth® for years...and they then call us to replace the zinc fabric with Authentic Pacific Silvercloth®. You can also be confident that anyone selling Pacific Silvercloth® by-the-yard, or using it to make or line products for silver storage and tarnish prevention, will proudly identify it by name.
We understand that some silver owners are looking for a specific color of silver cloth for aesthetic reasons; however, if the goal is tarnish-prevention, Pacific Silvercloth® has been considered the premiere one to get for over 130+ years.
We, here at SilverGuard, are proud to be affiliated with a product that truly does what it claims it will do....keep your silver clean between uses for generations. We have spoken with many customers throughout our 38+ years of being in business who have Pacific Silvercloth® flatware rolls and/or bags handed down from grandparents, even great-grandparents, including some who had received them for their 1940's weddings, and they are still keeping their silver clean.
Does Pacific Silvercloth have a 'right' or 'wrong' side?
Pacific Silvercloth® does not have a right or wrong side, so it's really just a matter of personal preference as to which side you put against the silver. However, we prefer to put the least napped side on the outside when making our sewn products, mainly because the least napped side will attract or hold less lint, dust, etc. over the years And when lining a drawer or cabinet, we recommend adhering the least napped side against the wood for better adhesion.
