How do you get oil off of silver

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Forum -> Household Management -> Cleaning & Laundry

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AhavatYisrael

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 3:19 am

Some oil from my Shabbos candles spilled onto my silver tray and NOTHING I do will get it completely clean. How do I clean it without making the silver lose its shine??
TIA

dats me

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 3:55 am

I would love to hear advice for this too!

merelyme

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 5:04 am

I'd use a lot of good dishwashing liquid and hot water, washing a few times as necessary.

AhavatYisrael

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 8:20 am

Thanks but I've tried that and it didn't really work so well. There was still the oily feel after washing it three times!!
Also, isn't hot water supposed to make silver less shiny?

zaq

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 9:37 pm

Never heard that washing in hot water dulls silver--in fact, companies like Goddard's and Weiman's that make silver care products recommend washing in hot, soapy water--and drying immediately. If you leave the silver wet you can get a whitish patina that is very hard to remove. If what you have is not silver but lacquered silverplate, the oil may have reacted with the lacquer, in which case there is nothing you can do short of removing the ;acquer--a job for a pro, not a housewife. Hot water will also damage the lacquer.

If your silver is not lacquered, try removing the oil with plain rubbing alcohol.

zaq

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 9:40 pm

What kind of oil and how long was it sitting there?

Raizle

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 11:12 pm

you can use hot water and I'd try Dawn detergent

Chana Miriam S

Mon, Nov 07 2011, 11:48 pm

Believe it or not, rokeach makes an amazing silver polish. We had a kiddush cup we thought was ruined forever and it looks like new. The thing here is that some silver comes with protective coating and if that is what got on your candlesticks, then if the finish was taken off in that spot I doubt anything will work. Real silver without the coating (like sterling) can definitely be washed in hot water. My mother has her grandmothers candlesticks from Austria in the 1880 s and she has never used anything but silvo and hot wTer.

My guess is your item is plate and either the plate or the coating on the plate has come off. Betting if its sterling, rokeach will do the trick. All of my silver plate has. Worn out in 18 years of marriage but my sterling still cleans up nice when I think to polish it!

AhavatYisrael

Tue, Nov 08 2011, 3:37 am

Thanks for the replies!!
The tray is 100% silver. I have no idea if they put anything on top of the silver to protect it (I know very little about silver) but I doubt it as it got a scratch very easily.
Zaq -it's the olive oil that's made especially for lighting Shabbos candles and it's been there for 2-3 weeks now.

Chana Miriam S

Tue, Nov 08 2011, 9:27 am

if you know it is sterling and know it has no coating, I would look at some sort of a degreaser. there is st. moritz, or there are other commercial ones, but not sure what effect they would have on silver.

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