How To Clean Silver

How To Clean Silver
Written by Michelle Staley

I LOVE antique and vintage silver and silverplate. I have gobs of plated flatware sitting in plastic bags because I just have not gotten around to cleaning it or doing anything else with it for that matter. But here are a couple of ways to easily clean silver and silverplate without getting finger cramps from buffing and shining.

The first is using sour milk. Now if you don't have a quart of sour milk in the frig, you can put the juice of 1 lemon in a quart of milk. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and you have sour milk. Pour this into a glass dish large enough to hold the quart of nasty milk and the silver you are going to clean. Be sure to cover the items you are cleaning. Let it sit overnight and you will wake up to nice shiny silver. Be sure to wash and dry it well.

Option 2) Get a large flat aluminum pan or one of the disposable aluminum pans, place your silver or silver-plate items in it. Boil a pot of water and pour this over your tarnished silver. Add a tablespoon of baking soda and a pinch of salt. This will bubble and boil but once all the action has stopped you will have tarnish free silver.

** I have tested both of these methods and they worked great for me but I assume no responsibility for what might happen when you use them. **

Serial Number List of Vintage Sewing machine

Serial Number List Dating Singer Sewing Machines These tables from Singer publications, they show the dates for a particular range of serial numbers for the different Singer plants. PLEASE NOTE: R-series was issued before J-series V-series was issued before F-series If the information is not listed here... I do not have it.
ELIZABETHPORT PLANT
		Year of issue
		From		To
No Letter Prefix prior to 1900
Letter N series		1900		1900
Letter L Series		1901		1901
Letter K Series		1902		1903
Letter B Series		1904		1905
Letter D Series		1908		1909
G-1,000,000 to G-2,500,000		1910		1912
G-2,500,000 to G-4,400,000		1913		1915
G-4,400,000 to G-6,500,000		1916		1918
G-6,500,000 to G-8,500,000		1919		1920
G-8,500,000 to G-9,999,999		1921		1923
G-1 to G-999,999		1924		1924
Letter F Series		1910		1920
Letter Y Series		1925		1925
LETTER SERIES
AA series		1924		1926
AB series		1926		1928
AC series		1928		1930
AD series		1930		1935
AE series		1935		1938
AF series		1935		1938
AF series		1938		1941
AG series		1938		1941
AG series		1947		1947
AH series		1947		1948
AJ series		1948		1950
AK series		1951		1952
AL series		1953		1955
AM series		1955		1959
AN series		1959
ANDERSON PLANT
	Year of issue
	From		To
Letter NA series	1951		1959
Letter NB series	1959		1961
Letter NC series	1961
ST. JOHNS PLANT
	Year of issue
	From		To
Letter JA series	1924		1936
Letter JB series	1945		1948
Letter JB series	1936		1948
Letter JC series	1948		1954
Letter JD series	1954		1961
Letter JD series	1959
Letter JE series	1961
CLYDEBANK PLANT
	Year of issue
	From		To
Letter ED series	1941		1947
Letter EE series	1947		1949
Letter EF series	1949		1949
Letter EG series	1950		1950
Letter EH series	1951		1952
Letter EJ series	1953		1954
Letter EK series	1954		1956
Letter EL series	1956		1956
Letter EM series	1956		1957
Letter EN series	1958		1959
Letter EP series	1959		1960
Letter ER series	1960		1960
Letter ES series	1960		1961
Letter ET series	1961
BRIDGEPORT PLANT
	Year of issue
	From		To
W 1,500,000	1954

Thank you to Sarah for the above information

Vintage Bel Air Sewing machine

Vintage Bel Air Imperial Sewing Machine with Case

This is a vintage Bel Air Imperial Sewing Machine with a case.

The case is just to keep the dust off of it and to sit the machine in, the clasps do not work and I would not trust it to hold up to being carried around by the handle. I made some repairs to the case.

There is pretty gold filigree and scroll decoration on the base which is in good condition. The endplate has lots of pretty filigree on it too. The belts are somewhat brittle and stiff and probably need replacing even though they worked well while I was using it.

This machine is circa 1950. It is considered to be a 3/4 size machine and is great for quilting and for teaching your children and grandkids how to sew on a machine.

The motor is a Bell Electric Universal Motor and it sits on the back of the machine.

It works great and I sewed on it for several weeks but I do recommend having it cleaned and serviced if you are going to be using it on a regular basis.

Antique & Vintage Sewing machine

Antique Primitive Victorian Vintage Furniture, Antique Sewing Machine, Vintage Child's Furniture, antiques and collectibles, collectible furniture Vintage Singer Sewing Machine - Singer 99-31 with Case This is a vintage Singer 99-31. It has a case, the instruction book, accessory box with bobbins and an extra feed cover plate and needles. It also has a light. The case is just to keep the dust off of it and to sit the machine in, the clasps do not work well enough and I would not trust it to hold up to being carried around by the handle. There is pretty gold filigree decoration on the base which is in good condition. This machine was made in the mid 1950's. It is considered to be a 3/4 size machine and perfect for taking to guild meetings or to leave sitting on the table for fast sewing jobs. It is also great for quilting and for teaching your children and grandkids how to sew on a machine. It works great and I sewed on it for several weeks but I do recommend having it cleaned and serviced if you are going to be using it on a regular basis.