looks like great buys!

I use silver cleaner in a jar I bought at the store. (wright's?) and a soft cloth (t-shirt fabric). I found some pieces of a t-shirt (from my sister (her dh)) so I washed them up and then bought the silver cleaner the next wk or so. Now I can't remember where I put the t-shirt pieces! just waiting for them to show up again...

I use the same thing. It's easier on the silver...just harder on your arms, with all the polishing : )

Great finds, lady! I have a little bit of lust going on for the darker chair. But even if I found a similar one, I have no where to put it.

If your flatware is stainless steel, I don't think the aluminum treatment will help it. I think the aluminum foil works only for sterling or silver plate.

Have you tried running the stainless steel flatware through a dishwasher, perhaps with extra soap?

from the pic, the stainless looks fine. I'd just put it thru a few dw cycles. and maybe hand wash between fork tines and patterned areas (a tooth brush?), then another dw run.

I've only found a few pieces of my stainless from the old place. I can only think the mice hauled it off. (probably set up a table at the local swap meet). the few I have I haven't used yet. I've used a sos on them too...

that's why I'm cleaning up some of the silver. no dw for that tho!

Yes, aluminum and stainless do not get on well together.

The stainless appears to be new. At least one set of it is with the iced tea spoons still in the individual plastic baggies.

The old silver silverware however is black. I googled it and found a bunch of different recipes. I did boiling water and baking soda. They look better and I don't have time to kadink with them at the moment so they are still soaking.

Stripping the chair today. I used to like doing that kind of thing.

What great deals! I never see prices like that at garage sales here.

Could we (I, LOL) see close-up photos of the patterns?

Yes, caroline, I will take some. The deals were either good like what I found or out outrageously high priced and those people will either lower them today or pack it all back up until next year which explains why I only spent $17. I won't pay nearly new price for something at a rummage sale that I can buy new at the store with a choice of pattern/style. And the people who don't even hose their stuff off that's been sitting in the barn........ Town people don't have much. I suppose storage space. Country people have the Stuff! The parents who have moved to the nursing home and the kids have to deal with their stuff have everything. The old chairs like I'm looking for will come from someone's barn, if I'm lucky. Or maybe from someone who buys cheap and resells. Mine came from one of those.

I don't need more knick knacks. Have all of that I need. I don't use the cute wooden boards all painted up. I don't need "decor" items. I don't want 1980 stuff that has been painted. I would like to find a waterfall dresser that hasn't been painted. They come along occasionally but never at the right time/place for me.

Caroline, these pictures won't be good enough to know if they match anything you have. I have decided to abandon the cleaning of the real silver.

Imhappy, try this:

http://betsyspeert.blogspot.com/2012/12/betsys-science-experiment.html

I didn't use the salt. I used the other one with just soda and hot water. But they are still dirty looking and I don't think I will put it in my mouth. Besides, I have 2 complete sets of stainless now. The real silver isn't a set, it's just pieces of mismatch. I think there were 7 forks that matched.

In your last photo, see if the four pieces in the right bottom corner are nickel silverware. The other look like silverplate and has probably worn through the plating. That looks like the silverplate mom had when I was growing up.

I think it is Wrights silver polish I use on my silver and it does amazing things. Might give it a try before totally giving up.

Wrights doesn't cost much either - a few dollars and it lasts a long, long time. I've cleaned a lot of silver over the yrs and it's cleaned up easily with Wrights. If you use it regularly it won't need polished as often. or keep in a regular silverware case. they also make 'silver' cloth to wrap it in. or wrap it in something like saran wrap.

after polishing it, rinse it well in hot water and dry with a soft kitchen towel (not terry cloth). It is very beautiful when polished up.

I couldn't find the jar of silver polish and I know the last time I used it it was dried out. I suppose I pitched it. And yes, I think the silver plate has worn through. It was only 50¢ for the whole box of silver so I'm not out much. The knives are trashed and I will use them as garden stakes. It's not worth my time or effort to work on them. I have "good" silver. I have these 2 "new" sets of stainless. I have another set of stainless that I don't use because I don't like them AND all the mismatched stainless from the last 25 years that I bought new. If this wouldn't have been the first silverware I saw I would not have bought them. And I didn't realize how awful they were.

I'm going to sand the white chair. I got it stripped yesterday but I'm not happy with it. If more sanding doesn't help I'll strip the spots that aren't clean enough and then go ahead and spray paint it. There isn't enough stripper in the can to save so I might as well use it on this chair. Then the next project is some of that refinisher stuff for the wood chair. My initial $12 has already doubled.

If those 4 pieces are nickel silverware, they could be worth something. I know people here who collect it and it's getting harder to find. Lots of cute things made out of old silverware these days too.

Edited to add this link I just found: Forks used as coat hooks

Is the "silver" flatware sterling or silver-plate? It should say on the back along with the name of the manufacturer. If silver-plate, they may well have had the silver just finally wear off and no amount of polishing will help.

Whether it's silver-plate of sterling, DO NOT use the aluminum foil method as it removes some of the silver. I like Goddards Silver Foam - it rinses very well. It is usually available in hardware stores - some groceries even carry it. Buy some 3M silver tarnish strips and put them where you store your flatware. And USE your flatware. If you hand wash it after each use (really just running very hot water over it and a light rub), it will stay shiny for a very long time and not need to be polished.