Tumbling silver using ceramic chips

[Stella]

How do I achieve a stain finish on silver by using ceramich chips in my tumbler please? I added water and pumice powder and tumbled for about 12 hours after which my silver looked like pewter! Where did I go wrong?!

[Solunar Silver Studio]

Hi Stella... :welcome:. You have posed quite a question there! I think you've scared everybody off! I'm sure they will come back and say hello in a bit.

Anyway - I have no answer to your question in as much as I have never heard of tumbling silver with ceramic chips before. I am contantly struggling to put a shine on mine - not cover it in scratches!!! I have tried looking on Google but can't find anything about it. Where did you get information on this technique from?

I assume that the process is similar, however, and there is certainly a recognised 'Eeek - everything has gone black' problem with tumbling with stainless steel shot. This link has suggestions for remedying this situation - and I personally use bicarbonate of soda in my tumbler when everything goes black (I must have read it somewhere in the past and it does seem to work well). Black stuff on jewellery after tumbling - Art Jewelry Community (http://cs.artjewelrymag.com/artcs/forums/t/12432.aspx)

Presumably - even when using ceramic chips - there is a chance that the crud mentioned in this link can redepost on your silver. Perhaps you now need to put your silver through a cleaning process in the tumbler. You could try tumbling it for 20 minutes or so with stainless steel shot and a drop washing up liquid which might clean it up a bit without removing your 'satin finish'.

....Do you get the impression that I haven't a clue what I am talking about???? Hmmmm - I wonder why??!!

With a bit of luck someone who knows what they are talking about will come on and answer your question with real facts!!...and if not...at least they will welcome you to the forum!!

[Gemma]

Can't help I'm afraid Stella but :welcome: anyway :)

[Tigerlily]

Eeek have absolutely no idea i'm afraid, am a complete newbie, but just wanted to say hello :welcome:

[Stella]

Thank you both for your comments, good to hear from you even if we haven't solved the problem! I did a course and she showed me some beautiful satinsed silver pendants and told me how to do it!
I have emailed her and asked her what I did wrong ...... but she hasn't replied. I too searched on the internet but without luck. I will try cleaning it up again and go back to the shiny steel shot option. Thanks for trying to help.

[mizgeorge]

I know someone who uses ceramic medium for this and she just tumbles in the usual way with a different compound (which I assume is slightly more abrasive than barrelbrite). I've never been able to see the difference between these and just using a scotchbrite wheel though, so I've never tried it. I'd be too lazy to keep changing media, and would want another barrel as well!

If everything's darkened, that's usually a sign that you need something to 'grab' the dirt - either barreling compound or soap.

Hope you manage to find an answer.

And welcome to the forum!

[MuranoSilver]

Is the ceramic media new & if so did you tumble it on it's own
first and then replace with clean water?

Nicola x

[Lisa Quinn]

I use ceramic chips with cutting powder and some barrelbrite to achieve an even matt finish, ( and as a lazy way to start of the finishing process for shineys !!) I would imagine the problem is the pumice powder, hope this helps. x

[Stella]

Thanks for the thoughts. it was new ceramic media and I didn't pre-clean it, so maybe I should have but also, it sounds as if I needed the cleaning compound as well as the pumice. Maybe I should go back to the scotch-brite but it seemed like an easy way of doing a number of items at the same time. Thank you all so much for trying to help.