How to Save a Silver-Plated Teapot (Even with Copper Corrosion)
When I found a silver-plated teapot at the thrift store, I knew it was coming home with me!
Despite being tarnished, covered with a filmy coating, and having heavy copper corrosion. I (delusionally) thought that I could love it back to life!
After a quick internet search of ‘how to clean silver’, I set to work. Here’s how I saved this crusty silver-plated teapot:
Step 1: Clean It Up
According to the internet, you can clean silver with white vinegar. So, I poured some cleaning vinegar into a bowl, put the teapot upside down in the bowl, and began soaking it.
It smelled horrendous! It wasn’t just a vinegar smell, either, but a metallic chemical smell. So, I opened some windows to air out the house.
I let it soak for 10-15 minutes, then moved it to the sink and scrubbed it with a brush and soapy water.
I repeated that process a couple of times. To soak the sides, I moved the vinegar to a shallow pan and laid the teapot on its side.
It was going fairly well, and the teapot was cleaning up decently…until I soaked the spout.
After soaking the teapot’s spout a little too long (I left it for 30+ minutes), the spout turned black. Scrubbing it with soapy water removed the round black stain from the body of the teapot, but the spout was still black. No amount of scrubbing was going to take that away.
Step 2: Aluminum Foil Method
Since I had a black spout to deal with and there was still blue/green spots all through the middle of the teapot, I decided to try a different method.
The whole internet swears by the aluminum foil method to clean tarnished silver. (In my ignorance, I thought the teapot was still ‘just tarnished’.)
I boiled a pot of water, lined a bowl with aluminum foil (shiny side up), added baking soda and salt, then submerged the teapot.
It did nothing.
Of course it didn’t. This silver-plated teapot wasn’t just tarnished; it was riddled with copper corrosion.
Copper corrosion is the blue/green spots you can see on the side of the teapot. That blue/green substance is actually called verdigris. This means that the silver-plating wore away, and the copper metal underneath was exposed to moisture. Unfortunately, this copper was exposed for so long that it had started pitting, which is permanent damage.
The only fix for copper corrosion once the silver plating is worn through is re-plating with silver. And I didn’t have the time or money for all that.
Step 3: Rub ‘n Buff
I was feeling a little defeated at this point. My only options were leave it as-is or paint it, and I didn’t like either of those.
It sat on my bookshelves untouched for a couple of weeks while I either looked online for good silver paints or ignored it completely.
Eventually, I got the bright idea to try Rub ‘n Buff. According to Google, Rub ‘n Buff is “a popular wax-based, metallic finish paste used to restore, antique, or color items, providing a durable, high-luster sheen that paint cannot replicate.”
And since it’s fairly inexpensive, I decided to try it. Why not?
I ordered it from Amazon in the color ‘Silver Leaf,‘ and it worked spectacularly!
It took less than 15 minutes for me to slather the silver paste on the teapot with a paper towel and then ‘buff it off’ with another paper towel.
It was super easy and quick, albeit a little messy. You can still see the pitting in the metal, but it’s not nearly as noticeable. And the black spout is silver like the rest of the teapot! So, who am I to complain?
I am very happy with how my little thrift store silver-plated teapot turned out! I plan on using it to display tulips on my bookshelves for years to come!
If you have a silver-plated object that is ‘ruined’ because of copper corrosion, give this a try. It will never be as good as new again, but it can certainly be beautiful again!
