Donna,
That chrome polish paste may have wax or some other brightener as an
ingredient. Any polish that brightens chrome is probably too harsh on
silver. I use Mother’s Mag and Aluminum Polish to remove rust from my
steel tools, and I can guarantee it has no rouge in it even though
it leaves a high gloss finish.
Those fine scratches may be due to a dirty buff or the type of buff
you’re using. I use fine muslin.
On the rare occasions I use rouge or the higher finish of pure
chrome green, I vacuum my polishing enclosure first. That way I know
that coarser particulate won’t land on the piece I’m polishing.
Also, I keep my rouge and pure chrome greed buffs and compounds in
separate plastic covered containers.
I hope this helps.
Jeff Herman