diff --git a/test/test_blob.rb b/test/test_blob.rb
index 3322cc41..a781e466 100644
--- a/test/test_blob.rb
+++ b/test/test_blob.rb
@@ -3,15 +3,27 @@ require_relative "./helper"
 class TestBlob < Minitest::Test
   include Linguist
 
+  def silence_warnings
+    original_verbosity = $VERBOSE
+    $VERBOSE = nil
+    yield
+  ensure
+    $VERBOSE = original_verbosity
+  end
+
   def setup
-    # git blobs are normally loaded as ASCII-8BIT since they may contain data
-    # with arbitrary encoding not known ahead of time
-    @original_external = Encoding.default_external
-    Encoding.default_external = Encoding.find("ASCII-8BIT")
+    silence_warnings do
+      # git blobs are normally loaded as ASCII-8BIT since they may contain data
+      # with arbitrary encoding not known ahead of time
+      @original_external = Encoding.default_external
+      Encoding.default_external = Encoding.find("ASCII-8BIT")
+    end
   end
 
   def teardown
-    Encoding.default_external = @original_external
+    silence_warnings do
+      Encoding.default_external = @original_external
+    end
   end
 
   def script_blob(name)
diff --git a/test/test_file_blob.rb b/test/test_file_blob.rb
index 82f3059c..383b170e 100644
--- a/test/test_file_blob.rb
+++ b/test/test_file_blob.rb
@@ -3,15 +3,27 @@ require_relative "./helper"
 class TestFileBlob < Minitest::Test
   include Linguist
 
+  def silence_warnings
+    original_verbosity = $VERBOSE
+    $VERBOSE = nil
+    yield
+  ensure
+    $VERBOSE = original_verbosity
+  end
+
   def setup
-    # git blobs are normally loaded as ASCII-8BIT since they may contain data
-    # with arbitrary encoding not known ahead of time
-    @original_external = Encoding.default_external
-    Encoding.default_external = Encoding.find("ASCII-8BIT")
+    silence_warnings do
+      # git blobs are normally loaded as ASCII-8BIT since they may contain data
+      # with arbitrary encoding not known ahead of time
+      @original_external = Encoding.default_external
+      Encoding.default_external = Encoding.find("ASCII-8BIT")
+    end
   end
 
   def teardown
-    Encoding.default_external = @original_external
+    silence_warnings do
+      Encoding.default_external = @original_external
+    end
   end
 
   def script_blob(name)