The silver on my new saddle is VERY tarnished, any tips?

Question

I recently bought a nice new show saddle that has a lot of silver on it. the saddle is about 5 years old but has only been ridden in a couple of times. the silver is tarnished and i have been trying to use "Tarn-X" to fix it, but i am having no such luck. Obviously silver on my saddle is not like silver forks or anything that could be soaked, i have to put something ON the silver to clean it and i have to remember that i don't want to damage the leather around the silver.

Please any tips on how to clean the silver?? I have been around my town and the only silver cleaner we have in town is "Tarn-X" which doesn't work very well. So if you have home remedies, that would be best.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I use toothpaste to polish silver. I saw the trick on q***r eye for the straight guy and it works great. Just squeeze some on and rub it around and then polish with a try cloth.

Answer 2

Unfortunately if the silver was tarnished, it probably wasn't cared for very well.

If the saddle is of high quality, like a Circle Y, usually good german silver like Montana silver is used on it.

High quality silver like this is coated with a clear coating to prevent oxidation and tarnishing.  If you polish that with silver polish, you remove that clear coating and now oxidation will happen virtually over night.

1.  Don't worry too much about the leather around the silver - but don't be careless about application of the polish.  If possible to remove the silver, do so - most of it is screwed onto posts and can be unscrewed, but do not force it and don't remove it if you are unconfident.  It's fairly delicate and if the post has oxidized to the s***w collar (as steel and aluminum do) you will break the silver by trying to remove it.

2.  for now, purchase something like Nev-r-Dull - this doesn't work as well as another, but is easy to use - it comes in a can  - it's a fluff of material with the cleaner on it.  You softly rub the surface of the silver and as it polishes you'll clearly see it.  Following directions - you should just wipe with a clean, dry cloth after using the fluffy stuff.

I've had the best of luck with a paste called "Simichrome" it's smaller than a tube of toothpaste and kinda pinkish.  You take a clean, dry, soft rag - put a tiny amount on there and carefully buff the surface of the silver.  Follow with another clean, dry soft cloth to remove the polish residue and it'll look pretty good.

But now that the protective coating has been removed, the silver will tarnish often.  You'll need to polish it a few times a year and pay attention during wet times.

After you've polished, if you've gotten some on the leather, just put a little Bick 4 on the leather - the Bick 4 will not damage or discolor the silver, and will put moisture back into the leather.

If the saddle's in good condition and worth attaching new silver, you can get a new set from a tack supply store.  JT Products is a supplier to tack stores that offers OK silver at pretty cheap prices.  Montana Silversmiths also offer all sorts of different pieces and kits for replacement silver - you could possibly replace the worst pieces and work on the others bit by bit.

When looking at silver on saddles, it's easy to tell which are actually etched and which are "gouged".  The cheap, gouged silver has rough edges on the image - you can just tell when you look closely what the difference is.  If you've got the cheap stuff, just do the best you can with it and save up for new.

Hope this helps.  These products should be readily available through a local tack store, I am pretty sure Tractor Supply Company stocks both of them and they can be ordered through Country Supply, Valley Vet Supply, State Line tack - lots of places should have it readily available.

Answer 3

toothpaste will take the tarnish off of silver.

Answer 4

First, try toothpaste, yes toothepaste. Squirt an inch of toothpaste onto a toothbrush and scrub the silver for about 5 minutes. Wipe with a damp washcloth. Dry. The tarnish should be gone.

Answer 5

http://interiordec.about.com/od/silverpo...

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/silver

http://www.silvercompany.co.uk/info_page...

Good instructions on cleaning silver.  Really good silver can't be dealt with harshly...having highly abrasive qualities will totally ruin silver....Try Wrights silver cream or paste.  Use an old tee shirt, dampen it, puts some of Wrights either paste or cream on it and rub on your silver.  Next get another section of dry tee shirt and go over the silver with that...will begin to pick up tarnish...it may take two or three applications of Wrights on heavily tarnished silver to bring up the tarnish.   Wrights will not harm your saddle leather.  I would caution you against using anything other than a silver polish that is recommended by a sterling silver designer/manufacturer.

I've used Wrights for years; on an antique, sterling silver tea service, sterling silver candle sticks, flatware, and other silver service ware and on my show halters, headstalls and show saddles....can't beat it.  The key is to not let your sterling get  heavily tarnished.  Show equipment can become tarnished, particularly if you're hauling every weekend and have little time to care for it when you need to.  This doesn't mean you have totally neglected the saddle.  Or necessarily treated it poorly.  (Not using a saddle tree).

I love sterling silver but it can be labor intensive to keep all of it tarnish free.  Still would not have anything else.

The silver that is out now is nothing compared to what we were showing in twenty five years ago.  We had a heavier composite of sterling in our silver pieces.  The silver pieces that are being manufactured now do not have as heavy a component of silver in the pieces...therefore, they are not going to be as reflective nor show the quality that we had back then.  I have a sterling silver show halter with Vogt silver on it and wouldn't trade it for anything...heavy silver.

If you believe you have to replace the silver on your saddle then approach a quality manufacturer of show saddles....Blue Ribbon tack is one, and see if they can order your show silver pieces for you.  If you've spent the money on a quality show saddle then I wouldn't hang a cheap silver piece on it.  Sticks out like a sore thumb.  Cheapens the overall look of you saddle.  

(Tarn-X may add a yellow cast to your silver which is highly undesireable).

Answer 6

I used to get these little cans of metal cleaner called Duraglit (or something like that).  The blue can was for silver and the orange can was for other metals, like brass.  It was cotton impregnated with the metal cleaner and you just tore off a little piece and rubbed it on, so no mess to leak onto the leather.  The cotton was like raw cotton, right off the plant, so there were some harder bits in it to give you some scrubbing power.  It worked great.  I don't know if they still sell it but if they do, give it a try.   I never used it on western show silver, but it was amazing on everything else I tried.