Cleaning Silver - an off-topic tutorial

I lost my cloth I've used to clean silver - you know, a flannel cloth that has some kind of chemical that you can use to wipe tarnish off of small things.  It's vanished from my bathroom - no one seems to know what happened.  Maybe elves took it.

So I took it upon myself to figure out some other way to do this without resorting to the same polish I use for my table silver.  I had heard of a method using aluminum foil, and I thought I'd try.  And guess what, it works!

Here's how to do it:

Take a saucepan - I recommend a very clean glass one, as it's non-reactive.  At least a quart size is good.
A square of aluminum foil about 12" by 12", folded up and put into the bottom of the saucepan.
A teaspoon of table salt
A teaspoon of baking soda

Fill the saucepan about half full of water and put everything in it.  Bring the water to a good boil - and drop your silver in it.  If your water has boiled, you should see a difference almost immediately.  Take the silver out and polish it with a soft cloth. 

I don't recommend you use this with silver that has things glued to it, or if the silver has soft gemstones in it, like pearls, turquoise, or emeralds.

Before - all tarnishy and nasty and black.  You can't tell that pin is a dragonfly.

During.  Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

After.  All bright and shiny.

The aluminum was all icky and nasty afterwards.  I won't show you that.