Alternatives to mirror finish

Hi! As a newcomer to the jewelry world, I always have a lot of
questions, so here goes:

  1. I’m interested in alternatives to putting a mirror finish on silver
    jewelry, and would appreciate suggestions for a durable finish that’s also
    attractive.

  2. I have an inexpensive rolling mill that has a few spots of rust on it.
    What is the best way to clean it up without damaging it?

Thanks in advance for the input!

Chris in oftentimes wet, windy Waynesville, NC.

Direct from my rolling mill supplier - rub rollers with extra fine steel
wool and denatured alcohol. Then lightly oil rollers. I use 3in1 oil and
occasionally use wd-40 to clean rollers. I would suggest always keeping a
thin coat of oil on the rollers. Its a pain, but my mill hasen’t rusted
yet.

  1. I have an inexpensive rolling mill that has a few spots of rust on it.
    What is the best way to clean it up without damaging it?

Hi, this is a message from CASTALDO jewelry molding rubber.
To clean up your rolling mill, run a small quantity of unvulcanized
CASTALDO rubber through repeatedly. For faster action, sprinkle on any
very fine abrasive powder, such as corborundum and work it into the
rubber. That’s how we clean up big rubber mills

Regards,
Michael Knight

Chris,

I don’t always go with a mirror finish on my silver pieces. A lot of
times I use a matte finish or a combination of matte and shiny. Some of
the ways I get the matte finish are with steel wool, 600 grit sand paper,
or a satin wheel. A more durable finish than these which would work
better on rings would be sandblasting. Also, a lot of times with casted
pieces I leave the grainy, white, casted finish alone and use it as part
of the design (like my Trees and Roots collection: the tree parts are
left with the casted finish and everything else is polished shiny. It is
at Jill Alessandra's Jewelry Gallery if you want to see what I
mean).

Sterling does not always have to be shiny. You can experiment with
different things to get the finish you want. If you like it, then it is
good.

Jill
@jandr
Jill Alessandra Jewelry
http://members.tripod.com/~jilk/

Hi Chris,

I have an inexpensive rolling mill that has a few spots of rust on it.
What is the best way to clean it up without damaging it?

It really depends on how deep the rust has penetrated the rolls. If the
rust is basically surface rust, a light polishing (shoe shine fasion) with a
clean strip of crocus cloth might get rid of the rust. If the rust has pitted the
rolls a more aggresive approach may be called for. Depending o
n the depth of the pits, 400 or 600 grit wet/dry paper may do the job. In
severe cases grinding with a cylindrical or centerless grinder may be th
e only way. If it’s necessary to grind, both rolls should be ground to the
same diameter.

Even when using the 400 or 600 wet dry paper, the entire width &
circumfrence of the roll should be dressed. If this isn’t done, you will
have areas on the roll that are smaller (albeit quite small) in diameter
than the rest. This will result in some parts of any metal rolled having
areas thicker than the rest. Depending on your requirements, this may or

may not be a problem.

The other consideration in resurfacing mill rolls is one of finish. A rol
l should have a uniform finish (pattern, shinny, matt or someplace in
between) over it’s entire surface. Ideally both rolls should have the sam
e finish, unless you are creating a sheet with different patterns on each
side. Any metal (softer than the rolls) will acquire the surface finish o
f the roll that last touched it.

If the rust isn’t severe enough to require ‘grinding’, but to bad for ‘sh
oe shine’ polishing; the rolls could be polished (not turned) in a metal
lat he of suitable size.

Good luck,

Dave

  1. I’m interested in alternatives to putting a mirror finish on silver
    jewelry, and would appreciate suggestions for a durable finish that’s
    also attractive.

G’day Chris; You’ll get lots of answers to this, but one of the
simplest methods of texturing silver is to use a flexishaft with a fine
round burr in the chuck and simply scribble over the parts you want
textured. You can change to a different burr to get a change in the
finish of other parts. Despite what it sounds like, it looks quite good.
However, textured silver tends to get a bit of tarnish more quickly than
a highly polished surface.

  1. I have an inexpensive rolling mill that has a few spots of rust on
    it. What is the best way to clean it up without damaging it?

You can remove the rust with a proprietary rust remover, even Coca-Cola
and/or very fine steel wool with CRC or WD40 as lubricant, but whatever
you do, your rolls will be marred for good This slight (I hope) blemish
won’t interfere with simple down-sizing of material, but can’t expected to
leave a really good finish on it. Your best solution is to take the
rolls to a very reputable firm of metal turners or engineers. and get them
to take a finest skim, followed by a good polish. As the rolls will be
hardened, the turner will have to use a fine high-speed grinding wheel on
the tool post even for a 2 thou cut. But it’ll cost you, I’m afraid.
Finally, you have been now been warned: never leave steel equipment
without a thin coating of ‘mineral’ oil, to be cleaned off and replenished
often. ‘Cheers’ doesn’t sound right in this instance does it? Oh well;
Haere ra instead.

       / \
     /  /
   /  /
 /  /__| \      @John_Burgess2
(______ )       

At sunny Nelson NZ (in mid- winter)

My magnetic tumbler puts a nice finish on silver. Kind of in between matte
and shiny.

Mark P.