I have a habit of washing my hands about twenty times a day. The
problem with this is that I wash all of the oils out only to
replace it with the binders in polishing compounds. During the
winter months, I am a little more conscious as my skin has a
tendency to crack in the dry air. When I use Vaseline with aloe,
the problem clears up and my hands are a lot easier to clean.
Kerry , I don’t know if it would work for you , but what I use
is a Mr. Clean and water combination. This is the same mixture I
use in the ultrasonic cleaner about a 60 -40 mix 60% being
water . I dont have the use of the second hand to use a tooth
brush but have found this will usually remove the compound
without scrubbing. Good luck, Timothy
Clinique has two products I use to clean my hands. Try the
exfoliating scrub and and 7-day scrub cream. Not the cheapest
way, but your hands will be presentable.
I heard a rumor from a goldsmith that dipping your fingers in an
ultra sonic while it is running explodes some of your bone or
blood cells , it also is bad for your hearing! I don’t know if
this is true but it convinced me! He was trained in Australia.
Jill: The only method I have found in 20-odd years of doing this
is Lava soap and a good, stiff knuckle brush, LOTS of clean
water. If you’re serious about your profession, forget
attractive hands. Steve
Kerry, I have found a liquid soap Called Dr Bonner’s castile
soap and I use the pepperment kind and is very kind to you hand
and wash several times an hour and no split fingers and sores. I
think that any type of castile soap might work. I found Dr.
Bonners soap in a health food store._Hope that helps.
I have been using Gesswein’s water soluble polishes for some
time. My hands still get black, but it does seem to come off a
little easier. But the biggest advantage that I see is that it
comes off the work faster & easier! I pre polish parts & don’t
want the compounds preventing solder flow or surface erosion that
seems to come along with heating dirty surfaces.
Hi Folks, Medical people wash their hands many, many times a day.
Nutragena soap, the clear amber colored soap is made for this.
In addition, Nutragena makes a “Norwegian Hand Creme” that is
marvelous. My hands were so rough that when I would caress my
kids they would be bleeding when I was done! Another product that
I came in contact with(through my diabetes and the attendent
problems that I have with it) is “Ucerin” creme. I like it
better than the Nutragena.
Just an opinion, I tried those, and found items that were small
to be very difficult to hold. I gave up using anything on my
hands. If it gets hot, I stop polishing, and wait for the stuff
to cool down. My fingers get black, so I use dishwashing liquid
(gentle?) and a scurb (plastic) pad to get the deep down black
stuff off. I use hand lotion every day and don’t find that I
have a problem with cracking or whatever.
Oh, I’ve also tried the gause type tape that various suppliers
sell, I didn’t like that either. No feeling. I need to TOUCH,
even while polishing.
Bruce, I also have the problem you describe with washing my
hands so many times they crack, especially at the fingertips. My
dermatologist recommended Bag Balm, which is similar to your
vaseline + aloe. Bag Balm contains carbolated vaseline (a little
more antiseptic than regular vaseline) and lanolin. Smells
antiseptikky, but really works to heal the chapped and cracked
hands. It’s actually made to rub into cows’ udders which are dry
and flakey (no foolin’, that’s what the Bag is). You can get it
at feed stores, if you’re fortunate enough to live in a part of
the country where there are such things.
I found a product called Fast Orange handcleaner used by
mechanics to really work getting all the black off of my
hands.
I use this too but I didn’t recommend it as although it is as
good as anything else I’ve tried, it doesn’t remove the ingrained
polish. Hmmm… It could be that I’ve got very calloused skin
with the dermatalogical equal of the Grand Canyon!
Lovely smell!
Regards,
Kerry
Kerry McCandlish Jewellery - Celtic and Scottish styles
Commission/Custom Work undertaken…http://www.bennie.demon.co.uk
Katunayake, Creagorry, Isle of Benbecula, HS7 5PG SCOTLAND
Tel: +44 1870-602-677 Fax: +44 1870-602-956 Mobile: +44 850-059-162
we have discovered something new at our shop that we can endorse
with great enthusiasm( if I could only remember the name). It is
called PR88 or something similar to that. I ordered it from the
stuller tools catalog for about $6.00. It comes in two sizes, a
tiny trial size and a regular size. It is in a yellow plastic can
and I think it is german made. All you do is rub it on before
you start working, it is a thick white puffy mousse type stuff,
let it dry and just rinse with water when you are ready to clean
up. We rub it into the area around your nails and underneath
where the stain it so tough to get out and I promise it really
does work!! I also had an employer who believed it was harmful
for us to absorb metal through our skin so he used food grade
33% hydrogen peroxide to bleach it out. I tried it and it stings
for a long time. (He also drank it for his health.) patty in
mo.
Hi Tom Arnold, I agree 100% with your recommendation for
bare-fingered polishing. One is far more sensitive to the
vagaries of pressure, timing and the action of the polishing
compounds when it’s fingertip touch to the metal. A piece of
leather to support a few links at a time when I’m polishing chain
is about the only time I’ll have something between my fingertips
and the metal being polished.
The potential insensitivity of gloves startles me. I’d never
heard of such a thing until this post.
I don’t belong to the dirty hands brigade of jewellers, although
I know some who regard it as a badge of honour. I’d rather my
work speak for my skill than dirt. I don’t like polishing much
and I scrub off its residue as quickly as possible. I certainly
don’t dabble my fingers in my ultrasonic. Occupational health and
safety research into the effect of ultrasonics on human tissue
has shown marked deterioration of bone structure.
Putting your fingers into the ultrasonic while it is ON is a
great way to destroy skin cells and have serious problems with
your hands. I recommended off list to the original poster to use
a diluted solution of Vigor ultrasonic solution. I keep a small
container of slightly diluted solution next to my sink. When I
need to clean my hands I simply dip my fingers into the solution
in the plastic dish, rub them together, and POOF! perfectly
clean hands. If I have stubborn compounds underneath my
fingernails and cuticles, I get out a soft toothbrush and dip it
in the same solution and scrub a bit and rinse in water. No need
to use any other soap afterwards - the Vigor solution rinses very
clean. It is non-toxic and does not irritate or dry out my skin
. I highly recommend this
QUICK and extremely effective method… but as was said before
NOT IN THE ULTRASONIC TANK!!!
After years of trying to hide my “mechanic’s hands”, I
eventually gave up and just began to consider the
grime-highlighted callouses a badge of honor
I wash my hands so many times a day that pre-treating them with
a cream is just too much of a pest. I had found a product that
works fairly well for the day’s last wash however. It’s called
Fast Orange and is sold at most hardware stores. Fast Orange
works dry or with water and if you use a nail brush with it, you
can get your paws close to presentable after a long day. It also
has a really NICE smell…guess it’s that all natural citrus oil
thing. Leaves your hands soft too.
Speaking of hands, we’re coming round to the raw season. I’ve
already got a case of “Christmas hands” because my shop is short
handed (eep, scuse the pun). You know how it is. The air is cold
and dry, you’re working more hours than ever and your get more
than your share of cuts and burns and your skin is splitting
along the fingerprints from overuse. I broke out my bottle of
"Liquid Bandage" a couple weeks ago. I can’t stand band-aids
blocking my sense of touch. This liquid stuff burns like hellfire
when you coat a cut with it, but that’s the antiseptic feature.
A couple of coats let to dry make it possible to continue to work
without getting metal filings or polisher dirt into the wounds.
Anyone else have any good methods for dealing with abused
fingers when you just don’t have time to let them heal?
I’ll second Tom’s note here. While there may on occasion be
exceptions, I consider gloves while polishing to be dangerous.
The single worst accident I ever saw in this business happened to
a polisher wearing thin cotton gloves to keep the silver from
being scratched. Now grant you, this was a young inexperienced
kid who did everything wrong. Polishing a closed oval bangle
bracelet, he was working on a soft muslin buff only slightly
larger then the width of the bracelet, and was polishing ACROSS
the width of the bracelets’ side, instead of in line with it.
And he had a finger hooked through the bracelet (!!!). When the
buff caught, it pulled the bracelet down, and around the buff, so
the bracelet was now around the spindle, and jammed on the buff.
It was a good one horse motor. More than enough so that when
the instantaneous accident was over, the bracelet had been flung
across the room again, and the glove had been pulled off the
fellows hand and was now stuck, by suction, to the intake grill
of the vaccuum filter intake. The fellows entire middle
finger,(the one that had been hooked through the bracelet),
ripped from his hand at the first joint, was still in the glove.
The damage to the tissue was too severe to allow the surgeons to
reattach it at all, and he’s now got only a big gap between his
second and fourth fingers. The glove almost certainly
contributed to this, as without it, he might have been able to
let go in time, but as it was, when the buff caught the bracelet,
it also jammed the fabric of the glove in the position it was in
and he had no chance to pull free.
The chemical barrier creams work well, as does just plain old
scrubbing with a good hand cleaner cream with a good stiff brush
(gojo, or the like, from auto parts stores.) And frankly, I’d
have to say that it’s also practical to just plain realize that
polishing and jewelry work in general is going to leave it’s
badge of honor under your fingernails. Get used to it. (grin)
Remember: It’s not dirt! It’s not even just Honest dirt. It
is, after all, gold and silver that’s making it black. Kinda a
mind trip…
Yes, bag balm is good stuff… a farmer friend sent it when I
complained of cracked skin — BUT it took days to get it off
again, and when I asked how those who use it daily on their cows’
udders get it off, my erstwhile friend just laughed wickedly and
hung up… so if anyone knows a way to get bag balm off, I’ll
start using it again – I still have the entire can here…
Ryr
Last year someone told me about liquid bandage, and now it is
mentioned again. My local Jewel/Osco doesn’t have it and neither
does the Target…where are you getting it?
On a similar note…3M came out with some bandaid type things
called “clean seals”, I have been using them to seal cuts when I
don’t want them full of enamel, polish, whatever. If applied on a
clean, dry hand these sometimes make it through a day of
continual hand washing in the studio.
I use a cream called “Invisible Glove” - which protect the skin
against virtually all types of common chemicals (I don’t know
about acids). The only disadvantage is that it is water soluble
and will wash away when it comes in contact with water.
It protects against lacquers, paint, acetone, paint thinner,
resin plastic, dust/smears of all kinds and oils. It is applied
simply by coating hands and as much of arms as is necessary -
letting it dry (30 sec. - 1 minute)… After job is finished just
wash it off in warm water.
I use Invisible Glove that I buy at any art supply store.
Probably does t he same thing as that pr88 or whatever it’s called
but you don’t have to special order
it and pay shipping etc. You rub it on your hands before you
work and prevent the endless scrubbing after polishing, and the
need for vaseline etc. I also like D r, Bronners liguid soap for
washing - doesn’t dry out my hands . But for cleaning off
polishes I go for more heavy duty stuff. Also, Dr. Bronners
labels have some pretty funny reading material of the
"spiritual" kind, for those of us who like to sit on the toilette
and read.
Happy Trails, Peter Slone
