Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Silver Surfer

My quest for polishing silver continues. Last night I attempted the chemical dip (dun,dun,duuuun!) - that was my scary sound effect. And boy did it shine things right up!


I got out my glass dish, lined it with aluminum foil and poured some undisclosed amount of salt and then formed another little mound of baking soda. Added some boiled water and then threw in my tarnished silver jewelry.


It worked! But not quite as perfectly as I would have hoped. So I still had to wipe all the pieces down with a paper towel to really get them to shine.

That is when I decided to experiment a bit...
See that leaf inspired dish with the faint red arrow pointed to it? That was to be the subject of my experiment. Sure I had already rubbed the sucker raw, but I wanted to see what I missed.

I dipped it in the dish with the salt/soda combo. Some removal but not enough for me. So I dumped half the box of baking soda on top. If a couple tablespoons worked ok then a cup or two will work like magic, right?

It took me about three hours till I figured out the key to success. The perfect wave if you will.

The secret is that you have to put your tarnished silver piece in a bowl that it can be completely submerged. Then you fill the whole bowl with ridiculously hot boiling water. Then sprinkle the baking soda over the whole thing. It fizzles and fuzzes with chemical dip fervor.

If the piece is REALLY tarnished then you have to let it soak until the water is only warm then repeat the whole process.



When I started that leaf bowl, it was decently polished. By the time I was done chemical dipping, it shone like you wouldn't believe. Which brings me to my Jesus analogy.


Jesus is the light...right? And we are the silver. Silver can be all sparkles but put it in a dark room and it fades into the darkness. Now put a little candle up to the silver and you can spot the twinkle even in the pitch blackness.

What's the point?

We are not gorgeous without Jesus. We can only reflect His goodness...His light! The more light we let in our lives, the more twinkle we reflect. Just a reminder that we can can be Jesus' reflectors...His love can bounce off us to those around us. What a gift that can be!!! And that my friends is why we need Him to polish us & "dip" us in His Holy Spirit :) How's that for a kick-butt analogy!!?!?!

I think I am done for now in the silver polishing arena - unless I can get another BIGGER box of baking soda...then I think I will attempt the larger pieces. Hope you can try this method out and if you find that something works better - please let me know...I am really tired of having antacid hands!

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