It is the nature of silver to tarnish, so all silver needs maintenance in order to preserve its beautiful glow.  Since I often sell silver flatware, holloware, and jewelry, I have experimented with many products for cleaning silver.    

I hope you will find this guide useful.  PLEASE REMEMBER TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AND REGISTER YOUR OPINION.

First, what DOESN'T work to clean and polish silver:

• Soap and water will remove dirt and food but will not remove tarnish.
• I do not recommend the liquid or paste polishes found in supermarkets and department stores.  These usually require a lot of elbow grease and, even when used exactly as directed on the container, leave a white or gray residue, especially in any crevices.  Although you can remove the residue with more rubbing (and, in crevices, by using a Q-tip or toothpick wrapped in a tissue), there are easier ways to polish silver that produced better results.
• I definitely do not recommend the liquid preparations like Tarn-X sold on TV and in some stores.  These solutions smell like rotten eggs and actually remove silver molecules.  Their main problem is that they leave the silver too white with none of the glow that makes silver so beautiful.  EXCEPTION:  If a silver item is terribly tarnished and has so many crevices that it would be impossible to polish it otherwise, I occasionally use Tarn-X at the sink, dip the item, and immediately rinse in running water.  I don't do this until I've exhausted other methods and am at the point of throwing the item away.

What DOES work to clean and polish silver:

• One of the gentlest cleaners that leaves a beautiful glow on silver is NeverDull.  It is batting of some kind that is impregnated with an oily cleaner.  It comes in a can and can be found in the supermarket.  It is easy to use and produces excellent results on light to medium tarnish.  The downside is that it is messy and takes some time to use.  It is less effective in crevices than it is on a large flat area.
• Simichrome polishing paste is a cleaner that comes in a tube like toothpaste.  It is available at hobby stores, online, and in some discount stores.  You use just a small amount so, even though it is fairly expensive, it lasts a long time.  It works very well and doesn't leave residue if you're fairly thorough when you polish.  Unfortunately Simichrome is messy.  I find that I can remove most of the black from my fingers with baking soda and a toothbrush, but it's hard to get it all off.
• I have used other pastes or creams that are similar to Simichrome that I bought at auto repair shops.  These are sold as metal polishes and are less expensive than Simichrome.  I have used one called Rolite, which I've found very satisfactory.
• It is usually very difficult to handpolish a piece of jewelry with a cream or paste because the parts are too small or delicate to handle easily.  For most silver jewelry I use a professional ultrasonic and general purpose jewelry cleaning liquid.  I haven't used the inexpensive small units that are sold as ultrasonics for home use, so I am unable to say whether these work like the commercial ultrasonic machines.  Jewelry supply houses (online and physical stores) sell a variety of ultrasonic machines starting at well under $100 and also sell a number of different cleaning solutions.  When cleaning jewelry in an ultrasonic machine, you typically submerge the piece for just a few seconds and then rub the tarnish away with a clean, dry cloth.  Cleaning in an ultrosonic is quite clean and causes very little mess, but it is practical only for small items.

Here are some of my current silver items. 

Carol Hearn, Wandering Creek Antiques