Tumblers...

[enigma]

Thanks for the info folks

[Rojaz]

lots of little hammers isn't it?

Hey Claire - not really. The effect of a tumber is of a pretty gentle abrasive nature. Think how even the finest piece of jewellery is not distorted by its time in the tumbler.
Work hardening of metal occurs when you actually physically force a shape change of the material - usually by cold forming in one of the four main methods ie. squeezing (incl hammering) bending, shearing or drawing. It's a metallurgical change to the chrystalline structure of the material.

Mark

[Dennis]

Thanks Mark. We really need you around, because they won't believe me.
There are also ways of heat hardening metals, by holding them a a temperature for a prolonged time in a kiln, a domestic oven, or even in brine, but I haven't tracked down a home doable method as yet. Dennis.

[enigma]

My husband knows the process for steel but I haven't been able to find the specifics for silver ?
We have a kiln that would do it if I knew the temperatures and times.

And Dennis, I believe you

[trialuser]

There's a bit about age hardening here

[Claire D]

I wasn't saying it in disbelief! I suppose I was just thinking about it in a different way, and have no actual proof to support what I was saying, just rambling really. Still love my tumbler though

[Paul Townsend]

I tried a vibratory finisher and gave up after hours of use with either shot, ceramic pellets and impregnated shell. I now use a magnetic finisher, and within 10 mins its done, and everything comes out awesome, obviously still need hand polishing but cuts out a lot of the initial work.