So last weekend I got married and me and my wife bought beautiful matching Stirling silver wedding rings. (Expensive too)

In my vanity, I thought mine was a tad too shiny so looked up and found a method to darken the silver by placing it in a bag with a recently crushed and boiled egg. The article suggested 5 hours, I checked mine after 20 minutes and it was completely copper coloured! 

I presume this is oxidisation with sulphur compounds. How can I reverse this? I’m currently boiling in baking powder to no avail. 

Please help, my wife is going to kill me!

This is a non-abrasive way to do it but you might consider taking it to a jeweller's considering it's an important piece to you.

http://blog.teachersource.com/2014/01/18/chemistry-of-tarnished-silver/

Edited October 2, 20205 yr by StringJunky

If silver ( spoon, fork,knife) get dark by egg, then mainly silver sulfide Ag2S is formed. A house wife trick is to put this together with baking soda in an aluminiumfoil and then in hot water or better in a dishwasher. The aluminium reduce the silver and  everything gets shiny. It should also work with the ring.

You said you saw copper, after your treatment, then probably I have bad news for you., because you purchased a copper ring plated with silver. This silver is gone. Maybe as suggested ask the jeweler or find a plating shop who can renew the silver.

Edited October 3, 20205 yr by chenbeier

15 hours ago, aj47 said:

So last weekend I got married and me and my wife bought beautiful matching Stirling silver wedding rings. (Expensive too)

In my vanity, I thought mine was a tad too shiny so looked up and found a method to darken the silver by placing it in a bag with a recently crushed and boiled egg. The article suggested 5 hours, I checked mine after 20 minutes and it was completely copper coloured! 

I presume this is oxidisation with sulphur compounds. How can I reverse this? I’m currently boiling in baking powder to no avail. 

Please help, my wife is going to kill me!

 

Take it to a jeweler, a long bath in a good ultrasonic cleaner should help.

It just has silver tarnish on it, let a jeweler fix it.  Easy and cheap.

I actually think it looks kind cool like it is, got a pirate vibe to it.😊

The baking soda/ aluminium foil/boiling water  trick works very well.
Cheaper and (importantly) quicker than taking it to a jeweler.