Tea stains on silver

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Brent D
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:33 pm

Does anyone have a good trick for getting tea stains off silver?
Most people are going to jump to the conclusion that im talking about tarnish. I am not. This is literally tea stains in the inside of the pot. This is one of the silver pots from YS. I can make the outside shine like new, but the inside stays dingy.
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pedant
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:40 pm

i think the usual options apply here.

mechanical removal of residue by scrubbing with mild abrasive like baking soda paste with wet cloth. or maybe melamine foam sponge (magic eraser). this is my personal preference.

chemical removal. could try dissolving oily residue with vodka or rubbing alcohol. rub with cloth and q-tip.

chemical degradation. could try something like sodium percarbonate to bleach it, but maybe it would be too reactive with the silver. try to look it up first or at least spot test.
.m.
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:58 pm

+1 for baking soda
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Brent D
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:24 pm

Havent tried a baking soda soak. Ill give it a shot. Bleach makes silver tarnish. You dont want to use abrasives on silver. Scratches cause oxidation to occur quicker and they are harder to clean.
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pedant
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:54 pm

Brent D wrote:
Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:24 pm
Havent tried a baking soda soak. Ill give it a shot. Bleach makes silver tarnish. You dont want to use abrasives on silver. Scratches cause oxidation to occur quicker and they are harder to clean.
scrub, not soak. i'm saying to use it as a mild abrasive used with scrubbing (and therefore it has to be a paste with undissolved particles). i like baking soda because it's the best abrasive i've found that is still gentle enough to not cause micro abrasions in porcelain (which would promote further tea staining later on). for example, those green scouring pads readily scratch porcelain.

many recommend baking soda soaks, but i personally have not found simply soaking in it to be effective, so ymmv. i wouldn't leave silver soaking in concentrated baking soda solution because it might be corrosive.

if you are sketched out by that, try soaking in boiling water for a while and then scrubbing with a wet cloth covered finger.
cloth alone can be just abrasive enough to remove stain mechanically if you put in the elbow grease. use a piece of an old t-shirt or something because with enough scrubbing, you will wear a hole through the cloth eventually.

maybe give the alcohol thing a try and scrub with a qtip? should be ok at dissolving the tea oils.
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pedant
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Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:29 pm

advice from my cowardly friend who has a couple silver pots :lol:
So many bad suggestions...
Baking soda is bad
Technically you shouldn't/don't need to remove the stains
herman's silver cleaner is the best though
I won't be commenting any of this though :p since I want to maintain a clean record
besides the inside won't shine like as the outside
The reason I said baking soda is bad is because it's too abrasive for silver
Galvanic reductions also result in etching
and the factory patina
gets removed which is bad
the aim is to reduce the sulfur/hydrogen sulfide
so wear nitrile gloves while cleaning for one
I personally like hermans
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Brent D
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Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:56 am

Thats some good info. Thanks
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