How do you polish your nooks and crannies??

[Solunar Silver Studio]

As I am totally self taught on the pmc front - I have bought a couple of books though - but nothing I have seen has really said anything on how to get the white film out of nooks and crannies in fired pmc. I use the normal brass brush; grades of wet n dry and sanding sponges cut to all sorts of shapes and sizes; burnishers etc etc but nothing seems to really get right in there... Has anyone out there sussed out how to do it?

And while I am on the subject of metal clay...since so many people have a passing interest in it don't you think there ought to be a heading on the main forum for metal clay questions/answers/hints n tips/experiences etc? I noticed there is something for beads and beaders. Is it only something the administrators can add?

[julie]

now thats a great idea ... sorry can't help you with you nooks and crannies :rolleyes: i'm new to pmc charms & toggles is as far as i have got but do love it there is so much you can do with it ... :D

[Charlotte]

I have always assumed its whatever you can improvise to get in to nooks and crannies... I'm pretty good at wet and dry origami;)

[MuranoSilver]

I stick everything in my tumbler and they come out shiny but I do have the thin pins in my stainless steel shot mix.
Another option is the polishing wheels with the little tentacles just looked it up Cooksons call them radial abrasive disks (http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Radial-Disc-Kit-6-Each-3-Grades--3-Mandrels-prcode-999-1967).

Nic x

[Charlotte]

I need to look into these thin pins for the barrel washer they sound ideal!

[The Bijou Dragon]

Cooksons doesn't have the pins in their shot, the only place I saw that for sale with pins is from a metal detecting place which I can't find again lol

... great help aren't I?

But I agree, get a tumbler if you can, some shot and use plain old washing up liquid in it instead of burnishing compounds and the like (but just one or two teeeeny drops as you get lots of foam as I found out). You'll be amazed at how shiny things come out!

If anyone can suggest a place that sells shot with the pins in I would be very interested :)

[Solunar Silver Studio]

ukge.co.uk do shot with pins and one of the pmc/acs supply places in the uk - one that does a lot of kilns - off the top of my head kitiki or something like that - had it too...but I found their website so hard to use I haven't gone back there again!!

I use grated soap - the old fashioned kind - bog standard, basic, unperfumed stuff which costs 11p a bar at the local independent chemist...and put a little bit on the end of a slushpuppy spoon in my barrel.....My God!...how weird am I??:eek: Just a tad unconventional perhaps!! After all - all that is needed is a de-greaser and lubricant - and I worry about the effect of all the extra chemicals in most washing up liquid now!!! I'm very environmentally friendly!!:)
Barbara

[MuranoSilver]

I think manchester minerals had pins too

[EmmaRose]

traditional jewellers use polishing threads. you can also get these great polishing sticks. I don't know if Cooksons have them, but Walshes do http://www.hswalsh.com/Polishing_Sticks_.aspx?i=TP6&t=152 these can be filed to a tiny point! you could also try using the point of a very fine burnisher. sometimes I find steel brushes as opposed to brass work too (not as soft so push into the gaps)
Also glass brushes are sometimes good.
Hope that helps
Em

[The Bijou Dragon]

I'm very environmentally friendly!!:)
Barbara

I use Ecover... :)

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Thanks all for your suggestions....:) I do tumble and I have pins in my mix but I still have white in the depths of my crevices! I have also just bought Cooksons finest burnisher.....still not quite there! I've tried the smallest Pergamano embossing 'bally' tools too.... Brass brushing seems to work best - but if you have adjacent bits that you want to keep smooth - well it all adds to the work load doesn't it?
Those radial thingies sound interesting...I might invest in those when I have a bit of spare cash! ...then there is the origami.....!!

Alternatively I could ditch the magnifying visor I need to use before I can see to make anything(!) ...then I won't see all these ENORMOUS flaws in my work!!:D

Thanks again guys!

Barbara

[Solunar Silver Studio]

http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss23/solunarsilverstudio/rose1.jpg

This is my latest experimental piece...where I am trying to incorporate my skills with sugarpaste into working with pmc. This rose is all made from scratch one petal at a time and measures about 1.5cm across and a little under 1cm high...NOW you can see where I am coming from with my problems with polishing up the bits no tool known to man can reach!! Without having the reflective shine in the depths of the crevices this just looks manky. I have brass brushed, burnished, tumbled with pins..attempted emery paper but you just can't get it to work with a double curve in it... tried my new extra pointy impregnated rubber thingy on my Dremel - which only seems to create black flecks which fall into the crevices!!:(| - but haven't risked the radial thingies as I think the petal edges would just rip the bits off it....

So thinking caps on please...How can I add a shine to the silver in the deepest crevices?? I really want to pursue this design idea as I don't think there are many people out there doing this sort of thing!

I am wondering if a little enamel painted on the petals would add something or just make it look even more gungy in the depths....any thoughts from you enamellers out there???

Please
:help:. HELP ME!!!!!!! :help:

[ps_bond]

I must have missed this first time round... :)

Working large to small I'll use a selection of:

Polishing motor (mops and 3M radial brushes)
Buff sticks (homemade, of course - treated with Tripoli on one, rouge on the other).
Nail buffing sticks - the foam ones with 3 grits.
Larger burnishers
Tam O'Shanter hones (can be shaped)
Mounted mops & felts for the flex shaft.
Impregnated rubber abrasive discs, knife edge discs, cylinders (or silicone pumice wheels, Cratex, any of those)
3/4" 3M radial brushes (as above)
Bristle end brushes with compound
The glassfibre polishing sticks already mentioned - I did think Cooksons sold them too. They're very effective.
Needle burnishers.
Toothpick with compound in the flexshaft.
Polishing threads.

I do sometimes tumble polish, but that's usually only for things I don't like polishing with the polishing motor - chains for example. I tumbled polished a charm bracelet I'd repaired a while ago and had to spend ages coaxing some of the shot out of the nooks & crannys in the charm...

I've got other stuff I use for steel, that's been partly covered by the cleaning rusty tools posts.

I would probably try the toothpick approach on your rose, Barbara - and you're not trying to incorporate your sugarpaste skills; looks to me like succeeded is the correct term.

[AlexandraBuckle]

Nail buffing sticks - the foam ones with 3 grits.



Glad I'm not the only person to use these :)

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Hi Peter...I was hoping you would reply as you seem to do a lot of 'out of box' thinking and that is the approach I need...and what a cracking idea!! :ta: I doubt I would ever thought of that but it sounds like a possibility... I've got to look after my 3 year old grandson all day today so I won't get a chance to try it out until the morning but I will report back as soon as I have had a go!! (Best hide the process from hubby tho' as he has 40 fits when I 'customise' things!!...and I don't think he will appreciate the 'shove a cocktail stick in the end' modification!!:rofl:

And thanks for your compliment...I love making sugarpaste bouquets for wedding cakes and the like....(very time consuming though and impossible to charge a reasonable rate for...) so it seemed like a logical step to try and move it into pure silver!

[ps_bond]

Only have the bare minimum of point poking out of the chuck, spin it up & coat it with polishing compound. You don't need to use pressure (and the stick won't survive it!), the wood is just a slightly flexible medium for holding the compound.

A similar thing is used with diamond paste and lapping sticks - hardwood lollipop sticks, really; wooden wheels are also used with diamond for some (gem) stone carving.

The nail buffing sticks were a chance find - my first pack of Micromesh had something similar in it, when I saw what looked like the same thing in Boots I had to give it a go!