How to Clean Silver Bands

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madox07

Lifer
Dec 12, 2016
1,823
1,689
Hey guys, I have a Peterson pipe with silver band. As it is to be expected, silver gets gray-ish after a while (oxidation I am guessing), I had it happen in the past with some jewelry. While I have my methods of cleaning classic jewels I never had to clean any silver that is attached to a piece of wood. I am wondering what do you guys do with silver rings, how do you clean them without taking them off the pipe? My ring is pretty nicely fitted and if I take it off I am afraid I won't be able to fit it back up like it was in factory condition.
 

unadoptedlamp

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 19, 2014
742
1,368
I second the jewellers cloth. A dish towel with a little bit of soft texture also works if it's not too bad.
 

lelik

Lifer
Aug 21, 2019
1,294
6,355
Metal polish cream with very small grit like 2500.
 
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dino

Lifer
Jul 9, 2011
1,937
13,448
Chicago
I use the same product I clean the oxidation from the stems, Flitz polish. It is a gritless, non-toxic polish meant for use on fine metal surfaces, but works great on vulcanite stems, silver and other metal bands and ornaments. It's available at Ace Hardware and Amazon.
 

pipesticks

Can't Leave
Jun 29, 2016
336
9
Chicago
I use WEIMAN Silver Wipes, disposable polish and tarnish remover. They seem gentle and works on silver plate too. It works perfect on the silver band on my old Peterson Donegal Rocky.
 

peregrinus

Lifer
Aug 4, 2019
1,205
3,787
Pacific Northwest
A Jewelers cloth.
I have a background in jewelry and for most people (and pipes!) a jewelry polishing cloth is by far the best option for a number of reasons:
First and most important, it is less likely to do any damage (ie over-polish, damage finish or the harm the briar).
Very easy learning curve.
It leaves the least toxic residue behind.
Easy to control and apply only to the desired areas.
One cloth should last you years.
 
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Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
I’ve used this method with reasonable success.
The worst part is just the idea of dipping part of your pipe in hot water. The effectiveness is highly dependent on temperature so I make sure it’s as hot as I can possibly bare to put my hands in, and try as much as possible to only dip the band and nothing else, which may or may not even be possible depending on the pipe shape.
It does come out shiny though, and it’s totally non-destructive.
(Any amount of polishing technically is removing material and will with enough time result in the destruction of the piece, maybe that could be thousands of years with a very mild abrasive, regardless you can’t get around the fact that tarnish contains the original silver and removing it is making the piece smaller).
I’m amazed that there isn’t some sort of industrial paste sold with all the components for reversing tarnish.

More recently though I’ve settled on getting an even patina on my silver and then leave it be.
Just use some paper towel to lightly polish the silver every day to make sure it patinas evenly, you’re not trying to remove all the tarnish, just even it out. Eventually as it darkens it will need less and less attention, after a few months of polishing once a week it should be good to sit practically indefinitely.

The total opposite of reversing tarnish with aluminum is leaving your pipe in a tub with a hot chopped up hard boiled egg, it will turn dull grey within minutes. This can easily be an excessive amount of tarnish and on rubbing it down you might get a bit of material loss, but it’s a fast way to get a nice deep patina.
Just make sure you do not allow any of the egg yolk to touch the silver because egg has so much sulphur it will severely blacken the silver.
 

jojoc

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 10, 2019
200
121
Not so much for addressing a tarnished ring, but more of a way to prevent the tarnish buildup to begin with -- buff with a paper towel after each smoke will go a long ways to keeping it looking nice
 
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mau1

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
1,124
837
Ontario, Canada
I use the same product I clean the oxidation from the stems, Flitz polish. It is a gritless, non-toxic polish meant for use on fine metal surfaces, but works great on vulcanite stems, silver and other metal bands and ornaments. It's available at Ace Hardware and Amazon.
Dino, does your Flitz polish require less effort than the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads or using fine steel wool when cleaning up old estate pipes? Currently I soak the stems overnight in Oxiclean, then use the Mr. Clean pads to scrub the stems. The scrubbing can be pretty time-consuming. Thanks!
 
May 8, 2017
1,593
1,627
Sugar Grove, IL, USA
Magic eraser for silver? That sounds far too abrasive. It’s essentially a melamine foam. I’m not dismissing the option entirely, but it sounds dubious. For light tarnish and maintenance, a jewelers cloth is best. For heavier work, a paste like Flitz is good, but be careful with light- or unstained pipes, because the tarnish can stain the wood if it lacks sufficient wax or other protective coating.

Wikipedia article on melamine foam.
 
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