I believe that the staining is from two factors. The colloidal component depositing pure silver particles, and the molecular ionic component breaking down when it drys out reducing to metalic silver as well. If it were simply silver oxide, that would be easy to remove with plain old water since it has a solubility of about 13 ppm, and plain water does not remove it. H2O2 however will convert metallic silver to silver oxide/hydroxide, thus making it possible for it to dissolve and be removed.
Silver cleaner is NOT a cleaner. It is a reducer, reducing compounds of silver, normally silver sulfide, to silver again, so it redeposits on the silverware. Thus if you use it on a stain that has some silver oxide or sulfide left in it, it will convert the rest of the silver oxide to metallic silver, making the stain worse, not better. However that does bring up an interesting point. Silver stains on a counter top could contain some silver sulfide (ordinary tarnish), if there is any sulfur in the air (cooking eggs, using garlic, bathroom door open), or any traces of a sulfur compound on the countertop. These would not be effected by H2O2. So in that case using a silver polish with an H2O2 chaser might be just the ticket to remove such stains. Marshall marmar...@aol.com wrote: > You could try using hydrogen peroxide to remove those stains -- also > you could try silver cleaner. MA
