the beads are too oxidized (and therefore very frosty when pickled, so that they don't match the other grains) and it takes far too long.
Two things you can do to ‘fix’ the look of your shot, as Oppi terms
the larger granules:
First, if you invest in a magnetic finisher, it will put a nice
satin finish on your pickled shot in just 15 minutes or less.
Separation of the media from the shot isn’t that time consuming,
though non-ferrous tweezers are definitely a plus!
Second, if you wire burnish the piece after assembly, the shot
should all achieve the same final finish. If any of the shot is
pitted or wrinkled at this point, then you need to revisit the actual
shot production.
Donna