I had to give one of my cats a sulfur bath and didn't even think about removing my rings. They are sterling silver James Avery rings and they both turned copper due to the sulfur. I used some silver polish which actually worked, until I washed my hands that is, then the rings were right back to a copper, tarnished color. I did some research and tried a few remedies I found online but nothing seemed to help. Anyone have any ideas on how to restore my rings or are they gone forever?
take them to a james avery store, and they will clean it for free!
They didn't turn copper. Sterling silver is 7.5% copper. The sulfur reacted with both metals, causing tarnish of both silver sulfide and copper sulfide. Removing tarnish removes those sulfides but also takes a little bit of the sterling with it. You'd rather not do that. There is a simple procedure you can do with pur silver to, instead of removing the silver sulfide, chemically return it to silver by transferring the sulfur to aluminum. scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/ta... However, because you're dealing with copper also, this may not be effective. The best thing to do is see a jeweler.
