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Originally Posted by Battara
The second is great!
The first one could use one of Ibahim's ideas of lemon juice and a tooth brush. If you use a brass brush, please be careful - again brass is harder than silver and may scratch the surface.
Ibrahim is also right about the tarnish. The more copper is alloyed to the silver, the more easily it will tarnish.
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Salaams Battara~ Your exhibits and posts on silver associated works are well admired and it is clear you are a silver master craftsman... The brass brush at
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showt...78&page=4&pp=30 however, does not scratch pure silver artefacts...I don't know why it doesn't... but it only appears to remove the oxide. Perhaps it is because it is a hand powered item and the pressures are such that it causes no damage? The silversmiths that I know in Oman all use this item. When used with lemon juice and rinsed the results are very good...
on silver.
Unlike Omani Khanjar the Yemeni equivalent Janbia or Jambia are often made of mixtures ( the mixed hues and colours are quite attractive so this is in no way a derogatory comment) and some would say that the metal is much harder thus more suitable as a weapons scabbard and hilt. What is apparent is the decline in quality from the pre 1948 days when Jewish craftsmanship was in abundance there and when much of the work was high quality silver.
I don't know what percentage each piece shown is but the top one which is to my eye greenish in colour has none or hardly any silver at all whilst dagger two is suspiciously pot metal looking particularly in the hilt. It may have silver in it to some lesser degree perhaps as a colouring additive.
Both daggers are very attractive in their own right, however, the question at #1 was about silver; which they are not ... unless we are using the generic term "silver" to cover all or any mixture of scabbard and hilt metals for southern arabian daggers? Nontheless and as you say, the brass brush also works reasonably well on such items. The tarnish rate is very fast on mixed metals thus it is hardly surprising that Yemeni owners don't get too bothered about having them so sparkling clean ~
I have also had excellent results from silvo type commercial polish solutions but try to stick with the more traditional techniques as outlined.
Please note that the paste used with the toothbrush technique (whilst you can use lemon juice) is, in fact, toothpaste.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.