How do I get tarnish off silver-plated cutlery without wearing the plating through?

Why the usual answer works

Tarnish is silver sulphide, a dark corrosion layer sitting on the surface. An abrasive polish removes it mechanically, which is why polishing creams, wadding and rouge sticks work quickly and why they have been the standard household answer for a century. Museum guidance confirms the effectiveness plainly, noting these products remove much more of the surface than a cloth or a dip does.

Usually recommended: Mild abrasion, Mild cream cleanser.

Why it must not be used here

That sentence is also the problem. Tarnish CONTAINS silver, so removing it always removes a little metal, and abrasive polishes carry corrosive acids as well as abrasive compounds. On solid silver that is a slow recurring cost. On plate the silver is only microns thick, so the same treatment is a countdown - and the museum sheet records how it ends: over-polishing plated silver removes the plating and exposes dull base metal that CAN BE MISTAKEN FOR TARNISH. The reader then polishes harder, on the one area with nothing left.

This damage cannot be undone by cleaning. There is nothing left on the surface to remove.

More about silver plate and tarnish.

What to do instead

Work out which you have first, because the answer diverges and hallmarks are how you tell. On plate, drop down the escalation rather than up it. Both conservation bodies read here direct a silver cleaning CLOTH as the routine treatment for light tarnish on plain undecorated pieces, and the museum sheet states that a cloth or a dip removes far less surface than a polishing cream does. For heavier tarnish the UK professional body permits a silver DIP, with conditions that are not optional: follow the container instructions, wear gloves, use fresh solution, and rinse thoroughly - dip left in crevices keeps corroding and produces a green crust. Electrochemical cleaners, including the aluminium-foil-and-bicarbonate method, are ruled out by both bodies as a class. The larger answer is to clean less.

• Microfibre cloth — Split synthetic fibres with a very large surface area, which lift and trap soil mechanically — often with water alone.
• Sterling silver — 92.5% silver, and the only material here where the standard domestic treatment permanently removes some of the object. Tarnish contains silver, so cleaning it off costs silver.
• Silver plate — A microns-thin layer of silver over a base metal. Everything that cleans sterling also thins the plating, and once it is through there is nothing underneath to polish.

This is a case where a specialist is a reasonable answer. Restoring a surface is a different trade from cleaning it, and continuing to try cleaning products on damage generally makes the eventual restoration harder.

The chemistry behind both halves

• Polishing removes metal — Every polish takes a little of the object away. On solid metal that is a slow cost; on a plated one it is a countdown, and the end of it looks like more tarnish.
• Corrosion and passivation — Most corrosion-resistant metals are protected by an invisible oxide film. Cleaning either preserves that film or breaks it, and breaking it is how stainless steel rusts.
• Material compatibility — The reason CleaningHQ answers questions about surfaces rather than about products. The same agent is the right answer and the wrong answer depending on what it lands on.