What is the best way of cleaning up silver or epns without taking the plating of?

Question:

Answers:
It all really depends on what you're polishing and how dirty it is.

If it's something small, in particular jewellery, a silver polishing cloth (I use Goddards) could be a good way to do it. It's a soft cloth that contains a small amount of silver cleaner, and it's good for delicate things or stuff you can't/don't want to immerse in cleaning fluid or cover in abrasive polish. However, if you're cleaning something big eg a silver teapot it might take a while and you'll need more than 1 cloth so it could get expensive.

Most really big stuff, like tea services, serving platters, or indeed cutlery, is designed to take a certain amount of cleaning and as such, you could probably get away with a light silver polish and a soft cloth. However, if it's really old silver plating, really dirty, or if you're not certain whether it's plated or not I'd suggest taking it to your friendly local jeweller or antique shop and asking for some advice.