Mirror Finish Silver

Hi,

I am wanting to achieve a mirror finish to my small pendants, currently I am achieving a shiny finish but when in bright light and when taking photographs I can see visible directional faint lines/scratches which I presume are left over from sanding as the lines are always in the direction I sand and polish.

Currently I use 800, 1000, 1200 grit wet & dry then Luxi Blue, then Luxi White, I am wondering whether purchasing a barrel tumbler would be beneficial? I have tried using emery paper after I sand but I am having trouble using this as it works perfectly to start with, then suddenly a massive scratch will appear which I believe is some tiny bits of silver getting under the emery paper? I would love to hear your suggestions, I have attached some pictures, one is photographed at an angle so the lines cannot be seen and the other is photographed in direct sunlight and you can visibly see the lines.

Thanks!

Hi Hannah, I would say it's your mops that are dirty and clogged up with polish. Are you using a pendant mop or a bench polisher? James has tips somewhere for cleaning big mops, I use a wire brush which is how I was trained but I think he uses a knife blade. No doubt he will look out his link tomorrow. I'm not sure how you clean pendant mops as I don't use them. I'm sure it's nothing more than that as you are doing everything right otherwise

We were always taught to finish silver jewellery by using a swansdown mop with jeweller's rouge and paraffin. Previously, a calico mop with tripoli paste.

If it is a dead flat finish you need, another technique is to use a piece of sticky backed felt mounted on a piece of glass (or a similarly flat surface) with a little dab of Brasso. You then keep crossing the strokes until you have a mirror finish.

I use the same methods as Martin has described, one addition though is the use of a bristle hair brush and Tripoli, which is great for removing scratches, I use this mop before using the calico mop with Tripoli and finally the Swansdown mop and Rouge, and the mop lubricated with paraffin. As I said previousely holding the back of an old knife against the spinning mop will remove any old polishing compounds that can scratch the polished surface.
I do use a bench mounted polishing motor also.
These are the bristle brushes I use;http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery...prcode-999-CAH

James

As Hannah is a Luxi user I didn't want to inflict my use of tripoli and rouge on her as others on the forum do seem to manage a mirror finish with Luxi without all the muck:) I thought from the photos the scratches looked more mop inflicted than anything but maybe I'm wrong. I too love the little bristle brush mops for getting all sorts off and wouldn't be able to polish to my satisfaction without my bench polisher.
I think we discussed on another post that others have moved on to menzerna as their polish of choice , I can't keep up !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by H H Wheen

If it is a dead flat finish you need, another technique is to use a piece of sticky backed felt mounted on a piece of glass (or a similarly flat surface) with a little dab of Brasso. You then keep crossing the strokes until you have a mirror finish.

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Yes, sometimes a dead flat finish looks best. You can do it quite well, but keeping your fingers clean, with sheets of MicroMesh laid flat on the bench and gradually going up the grades. Sutton tools sell a small set and they are also available direct, on line. Dennis.