A bit of elbow grease

[figheadair]

Amazing what half an hour of work with some silver polish will do.

[McMurdo]

Reminds me of doing that myself, probably have to do it again. Here was my result

[kingandrew]

Gentlemen,

Both of these sporrans look fantastic. Great work!

Andrew

[Lexx]

I don't know what you were using, but be careful of repetitive use of liquid/gel polishes, particularly on an engraved piece, over time you will loose much of the sharpness. My two preferred methods for polishing engraved silver are the "town talk" anti-tarnish silver polishing cloth (no affiliation) or some rouge on swans-down cotton cloth. Normal rouge is wax based, so if you get it on the pelt it could be a nuisance to remove so be careful, powdered rouge is also available, you can mix it into a paste with water and any overspill will wash off easily. However, it's much more messy to work with in the first instance.

[MichiganKyle]

I've seen some good things done with putting silver into a bath of dilute lemon juice (or any ionic solution, like salt water) and aluminum foil. From what I understand of the chemistry, it strips off the oxygen atoms from the tarnished silver and deposits it onto the aluminum. It supposedly is a near perfect reversal of the silver tarnishing process, in a way that can't be done with structurally-damaging volume-expanding oxides like rust. Do some research yourself - I'm no expert - but it might be worth a try for buttons or if you can remove the cantle from the sporran.

[ShaunMaxwell]

I've seen some good things done with putting silver into a bath of dilute lemon juice (or any ionic solution, like salt water) and aluminum foil. From what I understand of the chemistry, it strips off the oxygen atoms from the tarnished silver and deposits it onto the aluminum. It supposedly is a near perfect reversal of the silver tarnishing process, in a way that can't be done with structurally-damaging volume-expanding oxides like rust. Do some research yourself - I'm no expert - but it might be worth a try for buttons or if you can remove the cantle from the sporran.

I used a similar method to clean a sterling cantle I'd removed from a rather moth-eaten sealskin sporran, with great effect. I put a sheet of foil (shiny side up) in a glass baking dish deep enough to cover the cantle when filled with water. I liberally sprinkled the cantle/pieces with baking soda, then poured boiling water over it — enough to submerge the cantle/pieces. It produces a bit of a reaction. I repeated the process a couple of times and had a good result:



Cheers,

SM