Scratches showing up on hammered textured pieces help very much needed!

[SJEgan]

I'm not a formally trained jeweller, but I am living off my my income as one and I'm having a not so little problem at the moment and I was wondering if you could help. I'm running out of ideas myself!

A lot of the pieces I make are a hammered texture (I've attached an example pic) and I have been making them for about two years, since November I have been having reoccurring scratching on the pieces when I make them, 80% of the time they are too scratched to sell, which made Christmas a nightmare! Originally I thought it was a scratched hammer and ordered new ones; several new ones many of which were visibly scratched when they arrived with me, but over the last few months I have ordered about 20 hammers so I don't think it can be the hammers anymore as I never had a problem with them before and I have tried 4 companies.

My process is to cut out the piece drill holes etc, sand it, rinsing off between each grit, up to 2000 grade, then anneal and rinse, hammer, anneal, hammer, anneal until the piece is textured, solder jump ring, pickle and then polish using my barrel. Am I missing something really really basic? I don't think I've changed any of my process! Many of the scratches are curved and they are quite difficult to see. I don't know whats happening since before this I only ever had a problem once replaced the hammer and everything was sorted! I was originally using repousse hammers now have also tried plainishing and blocking hammers.

Any help is much much appreciated!

[mizgeorge]

Are you keeping your hammers polished up? Micromesh is excellent for this. Even the tiniest mark on your hammer will transfer to the work.

The other possibility is that the pins in your tumbler are causing the problem. I haven't experienced this myself, but I think that's because of the pins in my shot mix - I know others have had problems, particularly with shot bought here in the UK.

[trialuser]

Hi, I was going to suggest it may be the pins in the tumbler (if you have any)
You could try putting a blank pendant which has not been worked and has the film freshly peeled off through the tumbler.
If any scratches appear you have the culprit.

[silken]

I agree, I think you've found your problem! The pins in the tumbling media are designed for reaching into little gaps that the other media cannot get to mainly in more complex, curved pieces. However, for flat pieces they can cause problems when they come into contact with the metal. Their sharp points can scratch the metal and cause marks that weren't there before. You can buy stainless steel shot mixes without the pin shaped pieces (just balls, planetoids, etc) or you can (painstakingly) go through the mix and take out all the pins. Just out of interest, are you using carbon steel or stainless steel shot?

Also, you should make sure that the barrel is completely clean and free of any grit or anything else that shouldn't be there. Just a few little pieces of grit/sharp bits of metal can cause problems with scratching and marring.

I rarely use my tumbler anymore because I like to polish things with my flexshaft, I find it so much more controllable and the results are fab. I use radial discs and sometimes eveflex rubber cylinders to bring the metal up to a high shine then give a final polish with rouge on a soft mop/pendant accessory. This works perfectly every time for me

[Dennis]

Hello, SJE,

There is a saying, 'if you can't beat 'em join 'em. You have invested heavily in hammers, but for this traditional texture I have only ever used one ball-pein hammer and I use the ball end. The ball does have some scratches, which transfer in a random fashion, but I think the result is quite attractive. Recently I have sometimes used the reverse side, which picks up imperfections on my steel block as well, because I think the texture is much more subtle.

Although I have a tumbler, I don't use it for this, but simply brush up the piece with a wet jeweller's brass brush and plenty of hand soap. The result is bright and glamorous.

You might be putting the blame on your hammer or tumbler unjustly. Grit from sand paper and filings on your bench and bench-peg typically cause long, curved scratches. The remedy is to wipe down your surfaces frequently and blow away filings as you work. When piecing (sawing) I sometimes put masking tape on my bench peg, so that I can see filings more easily.

I have cross posted with Emily, but you notice we are both drawing you away from your tumbler. Dennis.

[silken]

Yep, ball-pein hammer for me too. It makes nice little concave indents

Dennis is right, it could very well be grit on your bench. If you support your work on the bench at any point and there is some grit there it is ohhh so easy to get your work all scratched. That said, I was convinced it was a tumbler issue because I've heard of a lot of people bemoaning the exact same problem and the tumbler pins were the culprit.

I hope you find the culprit! I know how annoying it is to get scratches all over your nice new work. I would definitely recommend polishing by hand/machine rather than barrel polishing though, it's much more fun if not rather messy.

[SJEgan]

Hey guys thanks for the replies.

I don't think it's the tumbler, I have tried several plain not hammered pieces that I've done everything else exactly the same with and they've turned out fine. All my shot is fairly rounded don't think I have these pins you're talking about, I have recently bought mops for my dremel though to start polishing some pieces that way so will be moving away from the tumbler.

I was thinking grit but I rinse off if not anneal and rinse off between most stages so I thought that would have dealt with that. All the scratches are confined to individual "dents" but not to every "dent" so think its the hammer but its not all the time which is confusing me. I think tomorrow the bench is getting scrubbed down anyway in an effort to see if it helps. I never had this problem before November! And finally up and selling a good steady amount of stock and really need to be able to make the pieces first time rather then 2nd 3rd or 4th!

Fortunately since several of the hammers definitely were scratched Cookson and Suttons have been very good about replacements and or refunds, cousins not so much!

[Goldsmith]

You need a bench mounted polishing motor, then you can polish the hammer heads rather than asking for replacements. Also a bench polisher fitted with a bristle brush using something like Tripoli and then finishing with a soft mop coated with rouge will polish the hammered surface nicely. I polish my hammer heads using my bench mounted polisher fitted with a stitched calico mop coated with a steel polishing compound which is usually a white block, Silverline make one. See;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-W...004687&sr=1-23

Here is a good value bench mounted polisher kit, all for £50 and free postage;http://www.metalpolishingsupplies.co...polishing-kit/

James

[SJEgan]

Ooooh James thats a very very interesting idea! And such a good price! I think you may have sold me on it

[Goldsmith]

Ooooh James thats a very very interesting idea! And such a good price! I think you may have sold me on it

With a price like this you cannot go wrong, the motor also comes with a 3 year warranty if registered online. When making single items, hand polishing is the best way to go. I can polish items in a few minutes with my bench polisher and you can see the progress while doing it. I also shape my own hammers using a grinder and polisher it's amazing how many shapes a standard small hammer can be shaped into.

James

Some of my hammers, some as bought and some reshaped.