cleaning silver after pickle - best methods / tools?

[peegee]

New member here, working exclusively in silver at the moment, and wondering what people do to clean pieces up when removed from pickle. Is an ultrasonic cleaner any good to me?

[CJ57]

An ultrasonic cleaner is just that a cleaner. You have to decide what sort of finish you’d like on a piece, high polish which involves mops and polishing compounds and some sort of rotary polisher either, hand held or bench mounted. A Matt finish can be achieved with brass brushes, different grades of micro mesh, even the sponge sanding sheets for silver clay which is my favourite. I don’t have one but a tumbler is another polishing option but others will be able to give you their expertise on that

[china]

Straight out of, the pickle you need to neutralise the acid , what I do is dip bicarb solution then rinse in clean water, ultrasonic is pretty much the final step after polishing then the steam cleaner or clean water

[china]

Caroline you obviously type much quicker than I do you beat me to it, more extensive too.

[Dennis]

A brass brush is good option for anything that has a texture, or is made of chain, or wire.
The brass brush needs to be clean, newish, wet and soapy.
Brass brushes in shared studios are often contaminated with pumice powder, or gone hard and rigid.

If you have a motor, then radial disks used in order, will also clean up complex surfaces. https://www.cooksongold.com/category...y=radial+disks. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Caroline you obviously type much quicker than I do you beat me to it, more extensive too.

It’s usally me Bob who looks as if they haven’t read posts, always good when we’re saying the same thing.
I’m not sure what sort of pickle they use at college, I remember the clothes wrecking steaming bath of sulphuric acid just feet away from me at ECA. I would imagine in your workshop you are using some sort of safety pickle which needs a good rinse and it should be ok

[china]

I use sodium Bisulphate I use it in my spa as well so it can't be too bad also from the pool supply it is a quarter the price

[ps_bond]

Likewise. It's less faff than keeping 10% sulphuric around.
I've been using
https://www.ukpoolstore.co.uk/acatal...us_-_UKPS.html
as a source for quite a while now.