Perfecting finishing techniques

Jewelry Discussion
41 
Don't be so quick to belittle polishing. There's a reason why it's
often a specialized specific occupation rather than something
mixed into general bench work everyone shares in a commercial shop.
Really good polishing requires a good deal more skill and
qualifications than simply not being a fool. There are lots of
folks out there who "Think" they know how to polish well. Few of
them, from what I've seen, really do.

Mr Peter Rowe’s full coments are a “must read” for anybody who does
not understand the important roll of The Professional Polisher. Often
underated and underpaid, The Polisher is the final integral part “at
the make or break stage”, and it is this person who also sees all the
mistakes/shoddy work/repairs/poor emery finishing/stuff-ups and
dodges, and is still expected to complete the item to perfection. If
an intricate piece is easy to polish, a good jeweller has done the
job well, and that same jeweller appreciates the care and attention
given by The Polisher. Then of course you have the mass production
line where speed of the process is critical, and once again The
Polisher is at the final Quality Control stage. That person’s
knowledge and experience keeps the flow going. More often than not
production workers would not even be aware of problems that they
created or overlooked were handled expertly by someone who received
no recognition for their skills.

A round of applause for those Professional Polishers out there! Phil
Inglis.

42

The perfect polish is a combination of good metal and good
preparation.

Good metal has no cavities or inclusions.

Good preparation is a little more complicated…sometimes the
finish left by a rubber wheel is not as good as the finish left by
carborundum/emery/whatever paper of the same grit. It comes down to
what works with the polishing machine and that’s what you want!

I find the rubber wheel is excellent for speed and accuracy but
sometimes the polish refuses to work after rubber wheeling. That’s
when I go back to the carborundum paper and it works.

The rubber wheel will smear the metal due to the high temps and will
inbed grit into the smear. Hand sanding with paper will cut without
smearing.

Al

43

Hi Helen,

Files remove metal and sandpaper removes metal. What is the
difference between using the different finenesses of files as
opposed to sandpapers?.......why is one better than the other?

The only difference is that you can’t get sharp corners with abrasive
paper as it is naturally resilient. This is especially true of
internal corners. Where jewellery is concerned, this is usually of
little importance - even where you are trying to clean up the joint
between a bezel and base sheet, a clean sharp corner is not usually
necessary. It is more of a problem in the work I do in restoring
antique watches where the metals are much harder ( tool steel and
brass ), and where it is traditional for internal corners to be very
sharply defined - this goes against all the rules of good engineering
practice and creates clear stress points but, nevertheless, I need to
follow the previous techniques when making replacement parts. For my
purposes files are essential. Getting decent files nowadays is almost
impossible and all files need work on them when you buy them to clean
burrs off the corners, make a safe edge etc. - as with most tools,
the people who design and make them have seldom actually used them
and don’t really know how they are used in practice… Fortunately,
being in one of the countries two historically significant file
making centres, I have managed to amass enough decent old files to
keep me going but, if I had to buy new now, I would only look at
Vallorbe in Switzerland or some of the better German makers and would
take a couple of ‘calm-down’ tablets before I looked at the prices!

When I have done all the shaping with files, I polish using diamond
compounds on metal or perspex sheets or sometimes on threads for
polishing pierced work. My last lot of diamond compounds came from
here http://tinyurl.com/lr92n3 - they are cheaper than anywhere else
I have found and seem to be OK as regards quality. (worth looking at
their shop too). Using just about 4 grades of diamond ( 15u, 6u, 1u,
and 0.25u ) I can achieve the required ‘black’ mirror polish on
hardened steel. One other thing you may like to look at are the 3M
lapping film.

Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W Wright
Sheffield UK

44 
Hopefully everybody's thoroughly confused ;}

A perfect polish is a necessity…but not always by means of the
motor.

There is a difference between mass production in a single person
production line and something unique.

Leonid, you are correct both in the grunt work of the polisher and
the final result; but the final result is the combination of all
processes as you say.

Al

45 
not to mention being willing to do only polishing, all day long, as
a career, isn't so trivial.

Thanks, Peter. I was too astonished to find words - like having a
doe jumping into the road right in front of your car…

Please ignore what youve heard before I have many years in the
polishing industry

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with “ignore”, but Frank’s message is
to the point. I’m not sure if his aluminum polish would work on
platinum, but it’s interesting to hear, anyway. On Orchid we get to
hear things like that.

You have to be careful use the files to a minimum so you don't cut
grooves.

This is quite odd.

Those jumping files!!! People like to talk about willful split laps,
too, and how they like to remove material. Don’t cut grooves unless
you want grooves. If your files are controlling you, you should go
back to school. I control my files. And my split lap.

Helen, all the smart people have said smart things, and I suspect
you are thoroughly confused and enlightened all at the same time.
The bottom line is do do what’s necessary, when it’s necessary, and
nothing else. There is no routine or algorithm that applies to all
polishing all of the time.

The art of it is to look at the work at point A and to know what’s
necessary to get it to point B. All of the tools, compounds,
machines, wheels are just the arsenal of things at your disposal in
the toolbox. There is ALWAYS more than one way to get from A to B,
in finishing. If it works, it works - doesn’t matter if somebody
else would do it another way.

And there are always instructions that say: Sand with 80 grit, stand
on your left foot, hop and spin around 3 times, blink your right eye
4 times, then sand with 120 grit, stand on RIGHT foot…" Sand,
tripoli, final, drink Scotch. Do what you need to do, when you need
to do it, and nothing more. Like all things, it comes with time and
practice.

46 
Sometimes especially on aluminium (i know very little alu is used
for jewellry but the principle is the same) you use no compound but
a 3 micron wet or dry disc with oil the pentrating type very thin
SAE10 as the final finish or second last. What happens is you are
actually using the 3 micron aluminium dust as a paste with the 3
micron wod paper and oil no compound at all The Aluminium is
polishing itself with itself so should gold and silver etc do the
same. when its so fine dust.

It’s not the same. The outer layer which produces the dust from
aluminum is aluminum oxide (corundum) a very hard substance, often
used for polishing stones. The outer layer of gold is just gold.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

47

Don’t worry Helen, i wrote that before your replies came in on my
emails and you obviously know where your problem lies. I think we’ve
covered pretty much all aspects the subject and for me its been
interesting.

Ironically i spent the first 3 years of my Jewellery life polishing
(mostly) cast silver items in Ireland.

I was never taught to use a tumbler as there wasnt one in the
workshop!

I dont want to be percieved as lacking quality because of what i
said, i didnt mean that polishing should be overlooked either. I have
standards and if i spend a few hours making a piece i will definately
put in the time to polish it correctly. As others have said, its too
easy for an unskilled polisher to destroy a well crafted piece with
overpolishing, removing all the nice sharp corners in a design.

I may start using a tumbler myself as many people recommend them!

All the best, Jon

48 
Often underated and underpaid, The Polisher is the final integral
part "at the make or break stage", When I have done all the shaping
with files, I polish using diamond compounds on metal or perspex
sheets or sometimes on threads for polishing pierced work.

Phil and Ian show what novices usually don’t see - jewelry
technology - in this case polishing technology. There’s no need for
Helen Hill to get anywhere near so deep to polish her rings, but
it’s important to know what you don’t know, too. Metals finishing is
a deep subject that has specialists with Phd’s in the field. Wide
ranging and complex… Tiffany’s makes and sells a million platinum
wedding bands a year, and no, they don’t have a guy in the second
bedroom doing the finishing…

49

Brain / Alberic,

You mentioned “They also don’t rake out their files nearly as often
as they should,”

Would you take a moment to explain exactly how to rake out a file?
I’ve often wondered how it’s best done. Thank you.

Susan Ellenton

50

Well said Phillip

I have many testimonials where the polishers have to fix all the mxx
the previous people did Its that final finish that will put the
quality stamp on the item. You can make the prettiest thingamee but
if its not finished properly it stays a ugly thingamee

Frank

51 
Sand with 80 grit, stand on your left foot, hop and spin around 3
times, blink your right eye 4 times, then sand with 120 grit, stand
on RIGHT foot......" Sand, tripoli, final, drink Scotch. Do what
you need to do, when you need to do it, and nothing more. Like all
things, it comes with time and practice.

I knew there were some classes I slept through on several occasions
long ago :slight_smile: Do you need special shoes? And scotch wasn’t in my
budget then.

I just look at the piece and see it as it should look. Minimal steps
to get there… file, emery stick if I can find the worn out thing,
split lap if required, bobbing followed by blue dialux on both buffs
and bristles. Silver gets brass brushed, high polished silver gently
place in a zip bag is going to look like hell in a day any ways. Some
pieces require sand blasting, tumbling, oxidizing or any other nasty
steps I think needed.

Short and simple, sometimes a little brutal but my results are good.
Watching a professional polisher even for a couple of hours can be
very educational. They don’t goof around, they just get the job done.

jeffD
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand

52

I still have the files I had twenty years ago. All working fine.

As for diamond compounds it depends on how they are graded. If not
graded properly you can get the odd size diamond particle that can
seriously screw up the work because it’s a larger particle than the
grade stated.

With diamond compounds cleanliness is everything. My experience with
these things is in lapidary where a slight aggregation can leave a
serious mark.

Given your interest you might be interested in a program on TV
called “Maters of Time” produced by NSK with much of it filmed
through HD macro lens. It is a story of two Swiss watch makers who do
one offs and some very limited and very expensive watches. The one
cuts his own gears as well as everything else. In one sequence he’s
polishing one of his watch parts with what looks to be boxwood and
diamond compound.

It’s wonderful to see such fine work being done. This has been on
satellite TV here in the US but these things must get around.

KPK

53

Hi Susan:

The thing about cleaning files is simply that every so often, you
need to rake out the teeth, to get any little particles trapped
between the teeth out. You need to do this on a semi-regular
schedule, (every half hour or so?) and especially every time you get
large particles trapped in there. The large particles drag across
the surface of the metal you’re cutting, and leave larger, deeper
scratches than the normal teeth. The actual timing of how often you
rake out the teeth becomes a matter of feel, both of the particular
file in your hand, and the work you’re doing. For example: if I were
just roughing down a large area that would later be completely
covered by something else, and thus never seen, I’d tolerate a lot
more crud in the teeth than I would while final finishing something
for the front face of a brooch.

We’ve all seen the ‘file cards’ that look like little (2x3") metal
paddles with wire brush teeth sticking out of them. Those are great
for raking out big, coarse machinist’s files, but they were never
intended to clean the delicate teeth of swiss cut files. Compare the
teeth on a 12" bastard file against a 6" #4 half-round file. Whole
orders of magnitude finer. Is it any wonder a cleaning tool intended
for the teeth of the big files doesn’t do much for the finer ones?

The best way I’ve found to clean fine files is an old trick that I
learned from someone along the way. Take a scrap of copper or brass
sheet, maybe.5" wide, and 2-3 long, 18 gage-ish. Put one of the short
faces against the flat face of your file, with the flat facing
across the file, standing up at an angle of about 45CB9A to the face
of the file. Slide it across the file so that it follows the primary
diagonal cut of the file. Do that a couple of times. The idea is to
use teeth of the file to cut grooves into the copper that exactly
match the teeth of the file. You’re making a custom rake that exactly
matches that particular file. Once you’ve got the teeth established,
you just work your way up the file, until the whole thing’s clean. It
takes a minute or two to do, but it really gets flat files clean.
After you’re done, just chuck the copper back into the scrap bin.
It’s not worth trying to remember which bit of scrap has teeth for
what file. Rounded faces aren’t so

easy, unfortunately. For those, stiff brass bristle brushes, like
brass end-brush burrs work pretty well. Hold it in a pin-vise, and
scrub your way up the file.

Regards,
Brian.

54

Helen you really need to know the importance of a sanding stick, or
paddle, that you make yourself, already mentioned by JD, it is a
sheet of sandpaper wrapped around a 1/8th-3/16th inch thick slat of
wood 10in. long, and it should be done very meticulously- folded
around the stick, 2ce on the sides so you can use the edge to sand
as well, so sand the edge flat, or bullnose, whatever you desire, It
is held with tape or rubberband on handle end. A good variation of it
is to rubbercement a thin sheet of rubber to the stick, sanding
silver with paper over rubber is very successful, cuts but gives,
very good for curvy things, or for softening a too flat surface. As
well as rubber wood sanding jigs Anyway this will be your main way of
handsanding, dp

55

I have a dim recollection of reading somewhere that training to be a
polisher once took a minimum of FOUR years. I suspect in Germany.
This in addition to ‘normal’ training as a jeweller!

Any comments, anyone?

56

Susan wrote asking for an explanation of exactly how to rake out a
file?

The method I learned was to take a strip of brass, 1mm thick, 5mm
wide and long enough to hold comfortably. Forge one end out as thin
as you can get it.

Use this end to push gently along the file, following the cutting
ridges.

The thin brass will follow the grooves and lift out all those nasty
bits of silver caught in between without any damage to the file.

If anyone has a better method, I’m all ears!

Jane Walker

57

Hi Helen,

Files remove metal and sandpaper removes metal. What is the
difference between using the different finenesses of files as
opposed to sandpapers? I know that you can get the papersin very
fine grades and so the scratches caused by those will be much
finer than probably the finest file - and that's why I've used
sanding after filing - but don't they essentially do the
samething? In other words, why is one better than the other?

I have been lurking for some time and thought I’d plug in since
think was the bane of my existence in metal finishing classes for
the jewellery design.

My understanding is that it is not that one is generally better than
the other, but for each project and each nook and cranny that needs
finishing there will be one tool that work best. On surfaces that
have deeper scratches sandpaper would take so long to remove the
scratch while a file can do so in a few strokes. The strokes of the
files are then carefully removed with finer grades of file and so on
until left with sandpaper to do the rest.

It comes down to speed. In a tight space the stroke of a file (if one
doesn’t have exactly the right file) can do more damage and therefore
more time cleaning up our own damage than to go in with a piece of
rougher sandpaper (or better yet some faster cutting aluminum oxide
paper). Find your own rythym and love it.

Have fun,
Bonnie

58

Susan,

Would you take a moment to explain exactly how to rake out a file?
I've often wondered how it's best done.

The cuts on the face of a file run in two directions across the file
at 60 - 90 degrees to each other. Hold the file in a vise or firmly
onto a bench or table so that you are looking across the file and
along the ‘furrows’ in one direction. Now, with a small copper coin
or disk ( note, a lot of modern copper coins aren’t copper but copper
plated steel - test with a magnet first), holding the coin across the
furrow and at a slight angle leaning towards you so that just one
edge is touching the file, press down hard and push the coin away
from you. Repeat this several times and the file will cut grooves in
the edge of the coin which correspond the the shape of the ‘furrows’.
Now the coin will ‘plough the furrows clean’ and remove any stuck
pieces of metal, grit or dirt. Repeat this all along the file for the
one set of ‘furrows’ then turn the file so that you can do the same
with the other set - turn the file over and do the whole thing again.
It sounds laborious but is actually only the work of minutes and will
clean the file safely and thoroughly.

‘File carding’ which is sold for cleaning files will actually shorten
the life of files as it is made using hardened steel wires which are
as hard as the file and so will blunt the teeth. Also, because the
tips of these wires are cut square usually, they do not reach right
down into the bottom of the ‘furrows’ to clean out the stubborn bits.
I think it is one of those products which is favoured by file
manufacturers as it helps to keep up the sales of new files!

It is good practice to rub chalk over the teeth of a file before you
use it as this helps to prevent metal filings from sticking to the
teeth.

Many of the files available today are very poorly made as the
manufacturers do not know how they are used. A particular case in
point is that many files now have the faces and edges cut and then
the manufacturers do an additional diagonal cut on the corners. This
might make the file look nice in its fancy packaging on a DIY shop
stand but, not only does it prevent you from filing a nice sharp
internal corner, but it also often means that the file has a line of
raised teeth where the corner cut meets the face or edge and these
therefore leave ‘deep scratches’ on your work. If you have files like
this, the first job should be to grind away the edge or face beyond
the corner cuts - being careful not to draw the temper of the file by
dipping it frequently into cold water while grinding.

For those who are interested, I have a section on file making on my
website here http://tinyurl.com/ncjdqg.

Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W Wright
Sheffield UK

59

OK geniuses. A practical matter that’s interesting, too. Somebody
wrote me offlist yesterday with a genuine problem that I offered
help with, but I don’t really have expert advise. I suspect he’s
more of a lurker on Orchid (bad word, but it’s the word…) and I’ll
respect his privacy here.

If anybody replies to me offlist (if it’s useful) I’ll forward it on,
otherwise I know he reads this because that’s where it came from.

Conceptually, anyway, he’s making engraved plates - pendants, etc.
The engraving has unique texture in the bottom that can’t be touched
by polishing. And the plates need a final polish without disturbing
that. I don’t know the depth of it, but we’re talking 1/2mm or
something. And the tops of the plates are flat and need to be
polished flat - like a mirror. AND I don’t know the production but
we’re not talking about one or two, which I have experience with -
more like 50-100 a day is my guess. If not I think he’d like to do
that. Precision polishing…

So, I talked about laps, which was not a surprise, I’m sure. And
compounds, and pointed him in a couple of directions for
industrial-strength tooling. I personally have generic knowlege that
may have helped, but I’ve never worked on that sort of work in that
sort of quantity…

So, geniuses… I’m wondering if anybody has a better solution

  • I know I’ve seen “perfectly” lapped things - machined, apparently.
    Not looking so much for fantasticating as if someone actually
    knows…

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com

60 
The method I learned was to take a strip of brass, 1mm thick, 5mm
wide and long enough to hold comfortably. Forge one end out as
thin as you can get it.

While this method will work. there’s a tool card a ‘file card’ that
does a great job.

The file card looks similar to a hair brush. The bristles are
usually thin hardened steel wires set in uniform rows.

By brushing the file card across the file with the bristles parallel
to the teeth in the file all the gunk in the teeth is removed.

The hardness of the wires has no noticeable effect on the sharpness
of the file.

Dave