Silver-Plate Care

While all of our Pacific Silvercloth products work equally well with protecting sterling silver as with silver-plate, preventing tarnish to silver-plate is far more crucial for the long-term life of the article. This is because repetitive polishing of silver-plate will eventually wear down the silver electroplate and expose the base metal. Once this happens, the article will need to be re-plated by a professional silversmith. The cost of re-plating any size article far exceeds the cost of preventing tarnish to that article.

In addition to having proper tarnish-prevention, another way to avoid wearing down silver electroplate is to simply not over-polish. When you do polish, do not keep polishing the article just because the polishing cloth continues to discolor and turn black. When the article appears shiny and lustrous, you're done!

Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of tarnish on a plated article. Avoid using a cleaner or polish that is more abrasive or chemically stronger than is needed to do the job. Both the 3M Tarni-Shield Silver Polish and Twinkle Silver Polish Kit that we offer on our Silver Polish page are low abrasion and recommended by professional silver restoration experts.

For more helpful tips about caring for your silver, visit our Sterling and Pacific Silvercloth Care Guide. You will find information about cleaning, polishing, and storing your silver; as well as information on how to care for your Pacific Silvercloth fabric.