Would a tumbler give me an antique look on my chains and what do I use to do that? can I even put chains into a tumbler?
Hi Charles! Sonic Tumbler are excellent for polishing chain with mixed
sizes of stainless steel shot and tumbling soap or regular ammonia
mixed 1 part to 6 parts water (keep in a well ventilated area. For
the antique look an antiquing agent like liver of sulphur (dry
powder) mixture with warm water is the norm - make sure after you dip
the chain in the solution and it turns black you can rinse in plain
water - then take a green kitchen scrubbee and remove the oxidation
from the outermost surface. Be careful to really rinse in water
removing all traces of scrubbee before placing the oxidized chain
into the sonic tumbler with the ammonia solution. I’m sure that this
method of polishing chain is the safest way. When I was in Grad
school my professor was buffing a chain on the buffer - a soldered
seam came loose and caught the chain into the buff which spun around
and the metal inbedded in the buff pulled her hand into the buffer
spinning and severed her thumb which fortunately was able to be
reattached - this is a good lesson never to buff chains on a buffing
machine even when wrapped around a stick!!!
Happy Chaining,
Jeanne Jerousek-McAninch