Removing tarnish without removing detail

[Wet-Skunk]

I bought a silverplate center piece form the UK. It was replated and thus super shiny. I decided to antique it to fill in the recesses with oxidation to bring out the details. I basically brushed diluted silver black on the whole thing. Problem is, it is a bear to get the tarnish off. What options are available to me if I want to remove it without removing what is in the recesses. I can polish an area for minutes and it barely removes the tarnish.

[amena]

Hi Wet-Skunk
excuse my ignorance.
What exactly is diluted silver black?
Thanks for attention
Amena

[AG2012]

Hi,
You should have left it to develop patina after some time and then polish it occasionally, the way silver is taken care of.
Now try this:
Use Silver Cleaner Dip ( soak a cotton ball in the silver dip and rub. Then hand-wash the item in soapy water and dry with a soft silver polishing cloth). Do not use abrasives, it will leave scratches and damage plating.
Regards

[Wet-Skunk]

Sorry about the delay in my responses. Silver black is a chemical used to quickly oxidize silver. It over does it if you ask me. I ended up bringing it to a company in Philly that does plating/restorations. They polished it up for me. I may just leave it in its current state. It looks nice, it would just look nicer with the detail. Thomas Bradbury & Sons. Silverplate. 1862.

[bijoux.expert]

I've found that hydrogen sulphide gas is the best for blackening silver. I put some iron sulphide in acid, and it gives off plenty of gas (rotten eggs smell) that's best done outside. I put the silverware in a big clear plastic box and a small container making the gas in the corner and check on it all the time to ensure it doesn't get too black. It's important to put a cloth or a loose lid over the acid container to make sure no fine droplets of acid fly off. Hydrogen sulphide gas is toxic, so don't sniff too much !

You can make iron sulphide yourself by mixing sulphur and iron filings in a test tube then heating it till it goes red, break the tube when it's cold.

You can also make the gas in a container and then use a tube to direct the flow onto areas you want to darken, in every case, make sure silver is perfectly clean, as fingerprints won't tarnish.

Another useful tip is that Silver Dip will remove the tarnish from vermeil (gold-plated silver) WITHOUT taking any of the gold off, which normal polishing will do.