Trophies, medals and awards aftercare
You’re the proud owner of a new trophy, medal or award – congratulations. No doubt you worked super hard for your achievement.
Or perhaps a parent or relative has just bequeathed you a lifetimes worth of fly fishing awards, curling trophies or half-marathon medals.
Or maybe you’ve just pulled a family heirloom in the shape of a silver-plated salver from a musty box in the garage. And what – you may be thinking – do you do to clean it?
Here’s how not to care for your new found possession
A lady came into the Trophy Boss’s real live shop. In her hands she held a sliver-plated shield. In her eyes she held the look of a woman whose over enthusiastic cleaning had gone wrong.
Her husband was a bowler. He’d won club bowler three years running and now he was retiring and it was time to pass the shield on. So she’d cleaned it – ever so gently with a teensy weensy bit of Brillo pad. And with every teensy weensy stroke, she removed the silver-plating.
So here’s what the Trophy Boss did (we can call him Ian).
He sent the lady round the corner for a cuppa and went at the shield with gusto. Where she’d polished each inscribed disc gently – Ian polished it and polished it until all the silver-plating came off. What started as a dulled-down silver ended a bright beautiful brass colour instead. And the husband was none the wiser.
Avoid your own trophy, medal and award cleaning disasters with these three tips:
- Clean resin and pewter trophies with warm soapy water and dry thoroughly.
- Give your silver and silver-plated wares a monthly clean with a silver cloth, polishing in one direction only – never in circles.
- To reduce tarnishing, keep your silver and silver-plated trophies and awards in a display cabinet with some silica gel for extra protection. (The little sachets that you sometimes find in shoeboxes come in handy, they help reduce humidity.)
- To clean wooden trophy bases, use furniture polish sprayed onto a soft dusting cloth.
- Never use a dishwasher (or Brillo pads).
If you’ve subjected your medals and trophies to an award-winning cleaning disaster, try giving us a call, we can’t work miracles but we have been known to save marriages.