Haze after polishing

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi all, My credentials: nothing. Entirely self taught. Just a reminder
:-).

Polishing has always been a bit of a mystery to me because my books
don’t often go too in depth. I don’t know how hard to press, etc.

I have a few polishing wheels for my Foredom tool. I think I’ve got
the handle on filing -> emery -> fine emery -> tripoli -> rouge. I
think also that I have a handle on the wheels used. Flat felt wheel
with triopli and fabric wheel with rouge? Is that right?

I also have some polishing wheels for the tool, one of which is blue,
and the other pink, with bonded polishing compounds in them.

My question is, when using these, I can get a very nice polish, but
in direct light there is often a haze. No matter what I do with these
I can’t seem to shake the haze.

Also, my last piece I polished up with the rouge very nicely. It was
a flat piece of silver, and when I soldered the prongs on, and
pickled, I was left with a white silver coating. What does one
normally do to polish at this point? I used a brush wheel and did what
I could, but couldn’t get myself up to the previous level of polish
and it took me a long time to get all the haze out.

How much rouge should I put on a wheel? I have no way right now of
knowing if I’m putting on too much or too little? I think I was
probably starting out with way too much and am now trying to use
smaller amounts.

Thanks for any questions answered, and any other advice offered. This
list is the greatest thing for my hobby.

  • darcy
2

after polishing, try this.When you are applying rouge to a buff ,
apply it to only one half of the buff. As you polish, let the charged
half do the work, and then move the item to the uncharged half,
essentially removing the excess rouge from the piece…

3

There are several things that can cause a haze: 1.)firescale,
2.)greasy compound left on between polishing, causing contamination,
3.)too big a step between the tripoli and the rouge. If you’re coating
your silver with a firescale preventative (Pripp’s or boric acid), and
you’re washing thoroughly between switching compounds and afterwards
to remove the grease, then try putting at least two more steps of
compound, preferably three, between the tripoli and rouge.

Bobbing compound is the most aggressive of the tripolis, followed by
brown, yellow, and Graystar. These are used for smoothing out small
scratches and blending the metal. This is considered a pre-polish. The
disadvantage is they can quickly remove fine detail.

Next, you should go to an intermediate step with an initial polishing
compound. Personally, I like White Diamond, because it’s not as
greasy as some compounds. This is followed with Fabulustre, again a
fairly dry compound, then Zam. I usually stop at this point, but if
it’s primarily a large expanse of metal, I’ll increase the color with
a rouge and bring it up to a really deep reflective luster.

Buy yourself a couple more compounds, take it easy of the tripolis,
and see if this doesn’t solve your problem.