Yellow discolouration on silver after barrel polishing

[BeaCat]

Hello,

I recently bought a new barrel polisher for cleaning my silver jewellery. It is 2lb gold pro polisher with rubber barrel from Cooksons.

It polishes well and the jewellery comes out shiny but it has a very slight yellow tinge to to the silver metal.
I'm using barrelbright and steel shot.

Any idea why this might be happening and how to solve it? Thanks.

[Dennis]

It's probable that the shot has become contaminated, or rusty.
I would run the barrel with shot and Barrelbrite overnight and then rinse and dry the shot, or keep it completely submerged in new Barrelbrite solution.

This problem does not generally arise with stainless steel shot, but keeping it rinsed and clean is always advisable.

In addition a slightly alkaline barrelling soap as sold by Manchester minerals is said to benefit rubber barrels, and I suspect that a pinch of bicarbonate, or soda crystals added to your solution would do the same. Dennis.