We try our best when it comes to special occasions and holidays: Starting with the manners, table decoration, a tasty menu, a particularly great silverware set and much, much more.
Did you know that such first-class silverware for a large table can consist of up to 47 individual parts? Fish, vegetables, roast meat, butter, asparagus, caviar, or potatoes: different pieces of cutlery are required for each table with the highest sense of style. Of course, you'll need sugar tongs, a sauce spoon, or a soup ladle. It is simply the greatest pleasure to present and to dine with such harmonious cutlery!
Yet, there is no reason not to use this silver cutlery as you please on Sundays or even every day. Even after decades, you can rely on being able to buy individual pieces of your chosen silver cutlery.
Below, we show you our most beautiful silverware sets available at Artydome. In addition, we explain exactly how to care for and polish silver cutlery.
Best Silverware Sets
Recommended: The 7 Best Gold silverware Sets
How To Clean Silverware
Silverware does not belong in the dishwasher; Silver is usually alloyed with a little copper and copper can heat up and turn brown. Therefore, it is best to wash the tableware by hand. Yes, that takes a little more work, but in the end, you will be rewarded with a shiny silver in your hands.
Rinse the silverware in lukewarm water and use dishwashing liquid sparingly. In order to prevent discoloration from food residues, it is advisable to rinse the silverware quickly after use.
Polishing the silver cutlery takes much longer. With a set of silverware for six people, this task can easily take half an afternoon, but there are special silver polish pastes that make your work easier.
It should be said that these pastes make cleaning easier, but can hardly if at all, help to protect the silver from tarnishing. Silver polish that comes with tarnishing protection should be treated with care.
Do Not Clean Silver In The Dishwasher
We just repeated ourselves to make this point clear. However, if you want to use the dishwasher, you should make sure that cutlery made of silver and stainless steel are not washed in the same cycle.
Otherwise, there is a high risk that the silver will tarnish. It is better to wash silver by hand to avoid any unnecessary risks.
How To Keep Silverware From Tarnishing?
In order to prevent tarnishing or at least to delay it for as long as possible, it is important to store the silverware as dry as possible. Jewelry and silver cutlery can be wrapped in cotton fabrics. Aluminum or cling film also prevents the silver from reacting with the sulfur content in the air.
Secret Tip: Put a piece of chalk in the cutlery drawer! The best care for the cutlery is daily use though because the subsequent rinsing prevents tarnishing.
Let Tarnished Silver Shine Again
Various methods restore tarnished silver to a new shine. The simplest solution is electrochemical cleaning, in which the silver sulfide coating is converted back into silver with the help of a less noble metal such as aluminum. All you need are ingredients that are available in every household: aluminum foil, water and salt.
Aluminum Foil Trick Makes Silver Shine Again
Dissolve about five tablespoons of salt in one liter of boiling water and add the discolored silver to the solution along with some aluminum foil. It is important that the silver is in contact with the aluminum foil. The first results can be seen after a few minutes. The silver sulfide is reduced back to silver.
Be careful: This process releases hydrogen sulfide; it may smell unpleasant like rotten eggs.
If you are not satisfied with the result, you can repeat the process.
Microfiber Cloths Are Taboo
Cutlery can also be cleaned in a commercially available silver immersion bath. This is particularly good for smaller things that can be completely immersed. For larger parts, individual treatment with a silver cleaning cloth or polish paste is more appropriate.
Microfiber cloths should be avoided at all costs because if a grain of sand or other coarse gets caught in it, it will scratch the silver.
How to calculate the value of silverware
Not all silver is created equal, and so the value of silver cutlery depends on a number of different factors.
Silver Content
The most important point that determines the value of silver cutlery is the silver content. Silver is a very soft material. In order to make cutlery usable for daily use, an alloy is required, which is mostly made of copper.
The amount of copper in turn determines the fineness of the silver used. The higher the percentage of silver, the more valuable the cutlery.
925 Sterling Silver
Silver cutlery made of 925 sterling silver has the highest value. It consists of 925 parts silver and only 75 parts copper.
800 Silver Cutlery
800 silver cutlery consists of 800 parts of silver and 200 parts of copper. Because of the lower silver content, cutlery made from 800 silver is of less value than cutlery made from sterling silver.
How high the silver content of my silverware? You can simply check the hallmark. On the back of the cutlery, there is a stamp in the form of a number that shows the silver content (925, 835, or 800).
Silver-Plated Cutlery
If cutlery is not hallmarked between 800 and 925, but a number between 20-120, it is silver-plated.
In other words, it has a silver coating with a layer thickness which is between 20 and 120. The higher the number, the thicker the silver layer. The same applies to the value.
Cutlery that has no hallmark does not contain any silver and is made of inferior material such as chromium or stainless steel.
Recommended: The Different Stainless Steel Grades Explained
Calculating The Cash Value
The value of silver cutlery is calculated according to the daily silver price determined by the market. The weight of the silver cutlery is determined and the current value is calculated using the silver rate.
The price is constantly changing and is set anew every day on the commodity exchanges.
Antique Silver Cutlery
The value of silver cutlery is usually determined by the fineness of silver and its weight. An exception is antique silver cutlery, which is of great interest to collectors.
Their value is usually higher than the regular daily silver price.
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