Silver Cleaning

I'm not sure if it would hurt the finish or not, but I wouldn't let it touch just to be safe. Myself, I just use toothpaste to clean silver.

This is the kind of thing I would send it to a pipe repair guy for, they would most likely remove the band entirely, polish it up (possibly re-plate it, if it's plated and wearing off) and re-stain the pipe as removing it would probably damage the finish of the pipe, this would be in my mind the quickest way to make it look like new. If the plating is not coming off, it might be easier to just do it yourself and re-stain the pipe if you mess the finish up, staining pipes is not a scary thing, not that hard to do. Most silver plating I have seen as been extremely thin and when tarnished, has been itself damaged, requiring a re-plate.

Ctron:
I've got a number of burners with repair bands - silver and stainless. A little dab of Three Stars metal polish on an old scrap of a cotton tee shirt does a bang up job bringing back the luster - or lustre to our cousins.
You wrote:
"It is a rusticated finish so is it bad for the cleaner to touch the pipe itself?"
I asked a similar question some time back and was told to wrap the adjacent briar with a quality blue colored painting tape. I did and no worries. Today, I no longer use the painting tape and have become more adept at just being careful with the application of the polishing solvent.
If you slip up just wipe it off. These fire breathing dragons of ours are heartier than we think.
My bride even gave me one of her very worn jewelry polishing cloths and it also does a swell job polishing the aforementioned bands. Toss in one of those amazing 18 buck Dunhill briar polishing cloths and your burners are going to look nothing short of glorious, pally.
Fnord

I have two pipes that have silver bands. One of them had a spot on the rack right in the sunlight through the blinds and it got pretty bad. I went to Wal Mart and grabbed a Silver Polish Cloth, I think I paid about 8 bucks for it. One side is for removing tarnish and the other side is for shining and polish. Use the tarnish removal side first, I will warn you that it takes some elbow grease, but I got mine back to nearly looking like new. If you're super anal about your silver being 100% perfect and pristine, it might be worth it to send it off, but for a quick fix it's worth $8 to me. Let me know how it turns out for you.

If you have a friend in the jewelry business see if you can score a jeweler's cloth. Otherwise, a bit of jeweler's rouge on a soft cloth should do the trick. Take your time and go after the blemish gently. Put a bit of tape over the briar for a little added protection.

Make a paste out of Baking Soda and water. Polishes it up like new, too easy.

I've got an old bulldog with a silver band that gets tarnished beyond recognition, here's my solution. While smoking, lightly wet the tip of your finger and tamp down your bowl, now take that ash and rub it on your silver band, BAM! Shiny clean silver!

+1 for a jewelers polishing cloth. I use something like this:



http://www.amazon.com/Sterling-Silver-Jewelry-Polishing-Cleaner/dp/B001HNOQMC/ref=sr_1_3?s=jewelry&ie=UTF8&qid=1388663980&sr=1-3&keywords=silver+polishing+cloth
Cheap and very effective. In just a couple of seconds, silver is like new again - no muss, no fuss.

I use Never Dull on my metal bands, silver, nickel, etc. It comes in a can and is impregnated cotton wading so all you do is tear off a small piece and wipe it on and use a cotton cloth or paper towel to wipe off. Very easy to use and cost about $7.00 for a can that lasts forever. I'd suggest using masking tape on the strummel so you don't mar the briar's finish.