Hello-  Does anyone have any tricks or techniques to clean/polish small ss curb chains- or any kind of chain.  I had a big tangle mess with about 12 small 1.4mm chains - and i spent 3 hours trying to untangle them-and they all turned sort of a tarnished gray from touching them so much.  Then i tried to soak them in this ammonia jewelry cleaner, and they all turned brown!! @#$$!!- and this was right before i was leaving for an art show where i was showing my jewelry- it was a mess and i was just trying to run them through a polishing cloth as much as possible for the rest of the day!

thank you so much in advance- any advice would help!!

I usually use Tarnex and that works great 85% of the time. sometimes it ruins my stuff though. 

I clean my hand formed sterling silver chain in a tumbler but for the wee tiny stuff I use a polishing cloth. I don't put anything with a stone in the tumbler though. In the past I have used dry walnut shells with a spoonful of 1200 grit polishing compound, worked OK,  but took a while. Now I only use stainless steel shot in the tumbler.

I would use an ionic cleaner.  I have a small Speed Brite that I will use before a show on silver that has been around for a while.  Does a good job in seconds.  I paid around $30 or $35 for it.

A Speed Brite is the fastest way to remove tarnish but if you don't have one just drop by the grocery store and pick up some silver polish. My personal favorite is Goddards. Put a bit on a soft cloth, rub then wash well and dry. I buy it by the case and sell it at my gallery. Stay away form ammonia. It's a chelating agent for precious metals. Judie Raiford www.RaifordGallery.com

Have any of you heard of that method where you use baking soda with boiling water- in a aluminum coverd glass dish- (with your tarnished jewelry) and the tarnish is supposed to transfer to the aluminum?  I read it in a magazine...

I do not recommend the following method of removing tarnish if the jewelry contains dyed, delicate or
easily damaged stones such as Malachite, Opal, Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli, Coral, Amber, Pearls, etc.

Tarnish may be removed from sterling silver jewelry by soaking it for a few minutes in a small aluminum pot, or a small pot lined with aluminum foil, and a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon liquid soap dissolved in hot water.  The metal of the jewelry must be touching the aluminum pot, or the foil.  If the tarnish is stubborn, bring the mixture to a slow simmer for a couple of minutes.

People will argue that it needs to be washing sode instead of baking soda, but they all work