Recently I have developed a problem with my use of liver of
sulphur that I haven’t encountered before. After finishing 2-3
pieces of jewelry where I used liver of sulphur to oxidize parts
of them,upon finishing the polishing processes(brown tripoli
first,then zam) the silver would be very brightly shining. After
several days,there would be a ghostly outline of where the liver
of sulphur was but had been polished off. I made sure as always
to clean the brown tripoli off using an immoniated cleaner and
boiling the piece and recleaning again before using the zam.
This has never happened to me before,and cannot find the source
of my problem.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks …John
Barton(Images By JJ)
Hello John - I’m catching up on unread posts and it doesn’t appear that
there were any responses to your question. I wonder if what you are seeing
is the firescale becoming more visible after the fact - rather than any
residue from the previous exposure to liver of sulphur. I have used liver
of sulphur innumerous times and never encountered the situation you
described. Liver of sulphur cleans off very easily and thoroughly in my
experience. Did you find the answer to your question yet? There was a
string recently on “removal of firescale”. Are these pieces that you are
seeing the “ghostly outline” - fabricated or cast? Cynthia
Hi Cynthia;
This has never happened to me before,nor since. It definately isn’t
firescale. The image it leaves is a perfect outline of where the liver of
sulphur WAS. I think it may have been a result of my not getting all of
the polishing compound(brown tripoli) off before applying the LOS. Even
though I use good cleaning procedures,I may have left some residue on the
piece. I wish I could justify a steam cleaner,but can’t. Thanks John
Barton
Hi again - Hope you can follow this description okay - soo much easier to
demonstrate! I will go to the flexible shaft with a somewhat solid mini
mulsin wheel with bobbing compound (tripoli should also be fine) or
flexshaft brush - using them to clean the areas of liver of sulphur off -
where I want to be careful how much of the darkening is removed. . . a more
controlled situation. This works well with the oxidized textured surfaces
that I like to work with. Then will go to the buffing wheel to do the
bigger sections of removal. This also might work well in removing the small
areas of liver of sulphur that are left behind after the initial polishing
- without having to go over the whole piece with the coarser compound.
Then do the final polish. Also, if the bobbing compound doesn’t come off
easily and completely in the ultrasonic or by brushing - I will wipe off
excess compound with a soft old tshirt rag - then look for the leftover
bits of of unwanted darkening - then back to bobbing again (as described
above) and final polish. Do you use a variety of buffing wheels for the
polishing motor? I love the smaller stiff worn out bobbing compound wheels
for a lot of situations - probably the kind that are discarded - same with
the worn out stiff brush wheels. I have some wonderful softer worn out
ones for the final polish stage too. I think your description had me
perplexed. . . I do have to go back and remove small bits of liver of
sulphur too. Glad it isn’t firescale! Cynthia btw - the above description
works well for small bits of firescale too - especially by using the small
brush in the flexshaft can be very specific in removing the little
"islands". Saves time in the long run I think.