The Shining

A few years ago, I went to a friend's home and was taken aback when, following dinner, she put out a beautiful old set of antique silver dessert forks. It was probably the first time I had ever used real silver, and it made an apple crumble seem somehow elegant and old-worldly. Since then, I began acquiring odd pieces of silverware, and trotting them out for special occasions.

Real silver is quite beautiful, once you shine it up. Compared to my basic stainless steel set (see above for side-by-side), real silver shows its age but also its character. Sure, we can buy highly decorated cutlery from high end stores, but the real deal, with all its age and tarnishing, still takes the prize for most charming

Source: venturegalleries.com

That said, if you don't regularly use and polish your silver, it will start to show its age, both dulling over time and getting a weird, oily gold sheen across its surface (above). Recently, I found that this was the state of my small silver collection, and decided it was time for a good shining. It's incredibly easy to do at home, and you probably already have all the items you need:

• Shallow dish
• Aluminum foil
• Baking Soda
• Something to heat up water - kettle, pan, etc. 
• Tongs

The process itself is equally short and sweet. Here are the key steps:

1. Heat a full kettle of water
2. Line your dish with the foil, making sure that the shiny side is facing up
3. Scatter about 1 tablespoon of baking soda across the foil
4. When the water is boiling, pour it all over the foil
5. Drop each piece of silver into the dish, and let sit for 10-20 seconds. You'll see the tarnish fade almost instantly
6. Use the tongs to flip each piece to make sure each side gets coverage
7. Remove the pieces with tongs and wash with mild soap and water. Then dry

Here's a shot of steps 5 and 6

And here's one of the just-cleaned silver, getting ready to be washed.

It's pretty neat to see the before (left) and after (right):

Some people detract this process because they feel that it overdoes the 're-silvering' and sort of white-washes the silver so that you can't notice any fine detailing. But I've found that, in fact, that doesn't necessarily happen. Below is the "after" shot of a fork, and as you can see, the sweet flower pattern is still highly discernible and has a nice contrast of polish and age.

Et voila! All shined up and ready to grace the table.