Discolouration around cup??

[stardust]

I need some advise from you wise folk.

I made a piece of silver jewellery the other day textured it slightly with my rolling mill, soldered a cup, set my stone and polished it up a treat.. looked lovely and I was very happy with my new creation. Next day I noticed that the piece had tarnished slightly but there was a kinda discolouration around the cup that was lovely and shiny compared to the rest of the piece.. I'm now gutted because I can't sell this beautiful piece but what could have caused this I have never had this issue before..

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[CJ57]

Could it be firestain rather than tarnish?

[stardust]

No I pickled and polished it and it was perfect until the next day?? very strange..

[CJ57]

I’ve been there but sometimes you go into a different light and there it is. I usually find mine when I put them in the light box to photograph. Otherwise I’m not sure what I can suggest as I’ve never had tarnish appear like that

[Dennis]

Caroline is probably right. You might remember spending longer than usual getting the solder to flow.
Remedy: Get a hotter torch. In and out more quickly.

[stardust]

You might be right, would firestain get worse over night? and if it is firestain what would you suggest to remove it now the stone is set? scotch mop attachment?

[stardust]

True.. I use my little butain quite a lot out of pure laziness! :-) but I do have a gas / air set up

[CJ57]

The firestain wouldn’t have worstened overnight you might just be looking at it in a different light. My worry about removing it would be the lightly textured aspect. I don’t use scotchbrite mops any more as they need the lightest of pressure or you end up either removing the texture or worst case scoring the surface. I have been known in that case to matt finish it and hope it isn’t so obvious or I just end up polishing it out with a bristle brush and tripoli, then rouge. If I know it’s lurking there I usually end up going back and doing it properly though but I’m really anal about finish.

[stardust]

Yeah I dont think I can sell this piece now :-( thank you for the advice I will try polishing it out and see how it looks..

[ps_bond]

Any chance you could get it plated?

[stardust]

Not really without removing the stone :-( plus I dont like the idea of plating as it will inevitably wear off, I was thinking I might paint some liver of sulphur on it and see how it comes out.