I want to update my results for those who may see this thread in the future:
Please keep in mind my rosary has NO silver parts. This method is not recommended for tarnished silver since silver reacts differently to cleaning solutions.
I mixed water and baking soda (not baking powder) to form a paste and placed it on the dirty and smelly metal parts (corpus of the crucifix, center medallion, etc.) then waited a minute for the paste to dry somewhat, but not until it was fully dry, just thick. I then used an old toothbrush dipped in plain water and scrubbed firmly but not roughly to work the baking soda around. I then took a damp paper towel and wiped firmly, and rubbed where necessary, to both remove the staining and the remaining baking soda residue.
I had to do this process a couple of times on the more intricate parts such as the corpus and the St Benedict medal behind it.
After I had removed staining from each large metal part, I took lemon juice and rubbed some drops (not a dripping amount, just enough to wet the surface) of everything: crucifix all sides, center medal, all beads, all metal findings between beads, especially the spaces between decades and the our father beads). I then left it sitting to dry on a clean paper towel.
When it was dry it was slightly sticky so I got my hand wet and pulled the rosary through my hand until it seemed like all the lemon juice was gone (shouldnt take a lot of water or rubbing since the original lemon juice amount should be thin).
After that I dried it very well using a clean paper towel. Today the rosary is back to normal and doesnt smell or leave a stink or residue on the hands! Please try this method with your rosaries if they’re dirty. I was thinking about getting rid of this rosary because I thought it was unusable but this saved it. Baking soda, lemon juice and water!
