Clean and polish a silver chain that's been in a drawer for more then a year.
Silver chains especially, and chains in general are notoriously hard to keep clean and shiny. When worn the perspiration and oils from our skin contributes to tarnish (corrosion) and accumulates residue in the links. When not worn, they will tarnish anyways unless some precautions have been taken...which in my case I did not. I just had it rolling around in a nightstand drawer for about 18 months. I did however, clean it before it went there.
Mind you these directions are for using Jewel Brite to clean your chain.
Step 1
- Take a good look, you might not recognize it when you're finished.
Step 2
- Put the chain in the cleaner to let it break down the residues inside the jewelry. You can put a chain in overnight if it's really bad, but in this case it was cleaned and then not worn so 2-3 minutes was all I did. You can brush it gently with a soft toothbrush to speed up the process.
Step 3
- Get your toothbrush wet and apply some polishing cream to it. Then gently brush the polish onto the chain. Repeat until there is a little polish all over the chain.
- The other way to do this is to wet your hands, and apply some polish with your fingers. Evenly distribute the polish around the piece. Adding more water helps spread the polish.
Step 4
- At this point your chain should have polish worked in all the way around it.
- Either use the toothbrush to scrub, or your hands to rub, and work the polish in adding water and polish as needed to get a really nice lather going.
- You'll notice the polishing cream turn dark grey or black, this is the tarnish coming off the chain.
Step 5
- Rinse (preferably warm but not hot) with water, and dry.
And that's it. Clean and shiny at last. Much better results than compared to any sort of polishing cloth, because despite whatever treatment a cloth may have, it is still flat. No snagging, or wearing down the design of your jewelry with friction.
If you have our polish, give this method a try. Just don't be afraid to get the polish really lathered in, much better it comes off on you and you just rinse off your hands then it stays on the chain and is touching your skin when you wear it.