posted 01-23-2008 12:15 AM            

I know Pacific silver cloth has actual silver particles. How do the chemically-treated tarnish-retarding fabrics compare in effectiveness and longevity? They are usually less expensive per yard.

posted 01-23-2008 07:19 AM            

Existing SSF members are reluctant to respond until you first do some sharing about yourself and your interests in silver and in this case what it is you are using the polishing cloth on. It would be best if you would start by reading the top of this page where it says Please Read Before You Post and then add the requested information to your posting

SSF is just a small group of people who enjoy discussing silver and it is good form to introduce yourself to the group. Please let us know a little more about your general interest in silver and your interest in learning more about your item.

posted 01-23-2008 10:04 AM            

I spent well over an hour last night trying to understand the protocols before I posted, reading not only every word of the "Please read before you post" page but searching the forums to be sure I didn't ask a question that's already been answered. I then attempted to display good form by keeping my first question as brief and to-the-point as possible.

If it had even entered my mind that anyone on a silver forum would be interested in my curriculum vitae, I'd have been happy to explain that I'm a 72 year old grandmother with three grandchildren engaged to be married and 14 more trodding their heels. I have a modest lifetime collection of beautiful old coin/sterling/unknown composition flatware I'm trying to sort through and apportion as wedding gifts.

I have quite a list of questions about many of the pieces, but first in urgency is new silver cloth (mine is at least 40 years old and ratty-looking) to make into storage/presentation bags. Pacific silver cloth costs considerably more than the chemically-treated and I have no money to spend unnecessarily, but if it is clearly the best product I will spring for it.

Sorry to have stepped in it on my first post.

[Edit: Never mind about this question. I just checked some other sites and have my answer.]

posted 01-23-2008 11:01 AM            

As I posted above, all the archival sites I've checked seem to agree that Pacific is the best and the longest-lasting.

posted 01-23-2008 12:16 PM            

I am sorry that you did not experience Scott's response to your initial posting as positive since I know that was the spirit in which it was intended. We are unlike most forums you run across on the web. Instead we are just a small group of people who like to talk about silver and we welcome people to join us. If you think of us as just a small group, including yourself, who have been invited into Scott and his lovely wife June's parlour for an afternoon tea and the opportunity to chat about all of the fascinating aspects of silver, then you will understand. We are not prying, but we appreciate when a new arrival takes a moment to briefly introduce themselves in the same way as anyone would who has a new guest visiting in their home.

To provide a bit more information on your question on silver cloth it helps to understand a bit about why silver tarnishes and how silver cloth can help.

Think of your silver and silver-plated things as ongoing science experiments. When silver comes into contact with sulfur or chlorine in the air or in a material, the sulfur or chlorine will start a chemical reaction with the silver. The result is silver sulfide or silver chloride which is commonly known as tarnish. If the sulfur or chlorine is concentrated and kept in prolonged contact, the chemical reaction will go further and eat into the silver metal making those new compounds.

To keep your silver nice an shiny, you first will want to do whatever practical things you can do to keep sulfur and chlorine in the air or in food or other things away from your nice silver. For example, natural gas has sulfur in it so if you cook on a gas range, you would not want to store your silver in a cupboard above your stove or oven, and likely not even in your kitchen. Or table salt is full of chlorine so you would not want to keep salty food in a silver bowl for very long, or there is a fair amount of sulfur in eggs. Likewise most rubber objects have a fair amount of sulfur in them. While you can not keep your silver away from everything that may have sulfur or chlorine in it, or from such chemicals in the air, but the best first step is to try to minimize this and when you do have such contact with foods containing these substances to wash your silver right after using it and not leave it in the sink or refrigerator overnight for the sulfur or chlorine to go to work on the silver.

The second good practice is to use your silver. Silver that is handled and used regularly will not tarnish very quickly and not need polishing so often.

Finally, if you are going to store your silver, wrapping it in silver cloth of some kind, and/or keeping anti-tarnish strips in among the silver is a good approach, but be sure to store it in a place where sulfur or chlorine are not fighting your protection methods.

There are basically two kinds of silver protection cloth that I know of. One is Pacific cloth which I think is also a proprietary brand name. My understanding of Pacific cloth is that it has a lot of tiny silver particles embedded in it and it works by these particles sacrificially absorbing any sulfur and chlorine in the air before it gets to the silver inside the cloth. The other kind of silver cloth I know of is similar to Pacific cloth and has different brand names - one of them is Guardian cloth I think. This cloth is similar and works in a similar way but as I understand the difference is this other kind of cloth is treated with silver nitrate rather than having pure silver in it. It seems to work just as well, though I think that the Pacific cloth with the silver particles would last much longer in its effect (lifetime vs. many years). It seems to be a case of you get what you pay for.

In the end though, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure to do what you can to minimize any sources of sulfur or chlorine in the area of your home where you will be storing your silver.

Kimo

posted 01-23-2008 07:28 PM            

He made it sound as if that would be the end of Pacific cloth, as R&B have the rights. Since the company makes and sells storage boxes for silver, I assume they're continuing to make enough of the cloth to line those boxes, and I'd bet they're still making storage bags with the company name to be sold with their own items.

Thinking it over, I wonder how anyone could 'own' the rights to the process for making silver-embedded cloth after all this time -- though I imagine with all the extension of trademark and copyright laws, that they do retain the right to the name 'Pacific cloth'.

I can vouch for its being more effective over the long term than other anti-tarnish cloths, having recently unpacked silver stored for almost 15 years with a variety of cloths.

posted 01-24-2008 12:44 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by 21Kimball:
I also find that my hollowware (plated) displayed where sunlight hits tarnishes faster.

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It is not the sunlight, but the heat from the sunlight that makes things tarnish faster. Adding heat to a chemical reaction such as the formation of tarnish will speed up the process.

posted 01-24-2008 01:44 PM            

The trademark is for a silver wrapping cloth of cotton and/or synthetic fiber for wrapping silver. Nothing in the trademark file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office indicates how it is made or what if anything the cloth contains except cotton and/or synthetic fibers. The website for Springs Creative Products Group indicates that the cloth incorporates real silver particles to draw tarnish and dulling sulfur elements away form silver utensils and other precious metals. The Trademark is now assigned to Regions Bank under a security agreement.

I could not find another company that incorporates silver particles into their cloth or what if anything that Reed and Barton makes in this line. Other companies indicate that they use a silver nitrate compound rather than silver particles.

I tried camphor also and I think it works - in part because it smells so bad that I never opened the silver cabinet.

posted 01-29-2008 12:40 PM            

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posted 01-29-2008 12:49 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by adelapt:
Can't help with the actual question, but have a related one of my own. Does anyone have any experience on the usefulness of acid free tissue (paper) when packing silver away for any length of time? Also - is there any difference in which side of the sheet contacts the metal, as one side is glossy, the other matt.

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I think it depends on what else is in the paper. Acid free does not necessarily mean sulfur or chlorine free. Those are the bigger silver threats. Does the maker of the paper you are considering give details on such other components to their paper and their recommendation on the suitability of using it for silver storage?