What causes silver to blacken and how do clean?

​Will my silver pendant tarnish? 
is a question customers often ask and to help you answer these questions, I have compiled the answers to help us all understand the effects of tarnish on silver products.

Tarnish is the bane of both jewellery makers and jewellery lovers alike. It's disappointing and infuriating to buy a nice piece of silver jewellery with a brilliant shiny finish only to see that finish slowly darkened and dulled within months and in rare occasions in days.

When silver is new or freshly polished, it looks bright and shiny but over a period of time, that shine begins to slowly change from bright and shiny to first a light yellowing, then progressively to a deeper yellow to grey and eventually to a dark black colour/patina.

This coating that goes from light yellow to black is called tarnish or aged patina and it occurs when silver comes in contact with items that contain Hydrogen Sulphide.

• Hydrogen sulphide can be found in many items such as wool, fossil fuels, foods such as onions, eggs and materials such as rubber, paint and latex.
• If you store or wear your jewellery in environments that contain a high concentration of these materials, or if you handle your jewellery after eating a meal that contains hydrogen sulphide, it's likely that your jewellery will begin to tarnish.
• Medications in the wearer's system, especially certain antibiotics, can also cause jewellery to blacken or discolour. In some rare cases, the wearer's basic body chemistry reacts to the silver and cause tarnishing.
• Your climate also affects how fast and how badly your silver will tarnish, so if you live in a climate that has high humidity, your jewellery will tarnish much faster and more severely.

How can you slow down the tarnish affects
The sad truth is, that it's the nature of silver to tarnish, but there are ways to either slow down the tarnishing process and ways to remove tarnish from your silver jewellery safely.

Steps that can be taken to reduce the tarnishing effect.
There are number of products on the market that can remove tarnish. What you use is dependent on how severe the tarnish is.

• If the tarnishing is mild, mostly light yellow in colour, you can remove it by buffing it out with a polishing cloth.
  
• Severe tarnish, that is dark grey or black colour, will require the use of some chemical method.

​There are many silver cleaning products readily available in supermarkets in the UK, such as Silvo tarnish guard or Goddard’s silver cleaner or the Town Talk silver products.

Tarnish is caused when silver comes in contact with hydrogen sulphide. To minimize the possibility of exposure, wipe down your jewellery with the anti tarnish polishing cloth (supplied with your keepsake order), after you wear it.
This is especially important if you’ve done any cooking or intense physical activity while wearing your silver jewellery.

Store your silver in a cool, dry place like a well-lined jewellery box or velvet bag.
Avoid prolonged contact with materials such as rubber, latex, and paint that contain a high amount of hydrogen sulphide.

If you are going to store your jewellery for a long period of time, enclose the piece in a zippered plastic bag.

What we do at WoW Silver to reduce the risk of fast tarnish
All our silver products come supplied with a special invisible coating of Anti Tarnish micro-crystalline wax, this helps to seal the silver from the atmosphere, so that with a bit of maintenance and careful storage, you can successfully reduce the tarnish and keep your silver pieces shining for years to come.
Plus we supply you with an anti tarnish polishing cloth to clean and polish and reduce the effects of tarnish after wearing.