Some Advice on Dealing with Salt Shakers and Hinged Lids!
Salt shaker for kosher salt,salt, pepper shakers,salt pepper shaker lids
It is salt that imparts a nice taste to your food, as you are well aware
of! So a dining table without a salt shaker on it is quite unthinkable!
Now, if a silver salt shaker is your showpiece, then it is going to occupy
a pride of place on your table!
Unfortunately, even a simple item like a salt
shaker can suffer over time. The salt stored inside can bring
on crusty corrosion marks. The simplest way to deal with this problem
is to empty the shaker after every elaborate meal and give it a thorough
cleansing with water. But this is bound to prove a rather tedious job
if it has to be repeated regularly. Or you could go in for something expensive
like heavy gold plating on the interior surface; gold remains unaffected
by salt.
Anyway, do conduct a 6-monthly inspection of your silver piece and figure
out the extent of corrosion. It is easy to do the repair job yourself.
Ensure that you are in a well-ventilated area since ammonia tends to let
of pungent fumes. Of course, there are readymade silver chemical dips
too, but they will not prove very useful in this case. The first thing
you do is to take a bowl/container and pour some ammonia into it. Now,
place the empty salt shaker inside this bowl/container. Cover the bowl/container.
Let ten minutes go by; then, remove the shaker and check it. Do you still
see a few black spots? The salt shaker goes back into the bowl/container
then! Repeat the 10-minute procedure. In fact, this can continue till
all the corrosion spots are completely banished.
In case the salt shaker exhibits signs of aging (grayish tinge) too,
you can go in for a liquid cleanser. Now, cleansers tend to be a bit abrasive,
so do the cleaning under trickling water. Just a minimal amount on a wet
sponge should do the trick! Use gentle rubbing motions on the interior
as well as the exterior. There are many good-quality silver cleansers
available in the market.
If you are still not satisfied with the luster, then go in for a liquid
polish. Again, the smallest amount is to be taken on a rouge cloth. After
a gentle rubbing, inspect your salt shaker. The silvery sheen will have
returned!
Many silver articles come with hinged tops or lids—ink wells, coffeepots,
teapots, boxes, etc. Do you notice the lid not settling back properly?
Then, there is a problem that needs to be resolved; and you can do it
yourself.
Get a flat toothpick and cut it to the required length (matching the
length of the hinge plates). Now, place it between the two hinge plates.
Your fingers are to manipulate or push the sides of the lid, very gently.
Is the hinge top sitting level now? If your answer is in the affirmative,
the problem has been rectified. If the answer is in the negative, then
you might have to use additional toothpicks. That wasn’t so difficult
after all, was it?
