This is a tale of two foundries… and I’m stumped. Perhaps someone
out there can enlighten me. Two months ago I had a dozen pieces cast
in sterling at a large casting house in Paris. (I’m writing from
France.) They came back just fine, with a light mat finish and I set
about polishing them. The areas that I wanted bright and smooth I
started with tripoli on a felt buff (on a few spots where my wax was
originally a little rough I used emery paper) and areas where I
wanted to keep the texture left by the carving tools I was able to
use the tripoli on a brush. I was able to move quickly on to
polishing with ‘jaune’ and 'rouge’and the results are great. Several
weeks ago I found a foundry locally. A one man shop. I had him cast a
dozen pieces. They came back matt of course, but duller that the
first dozen. I’ve had a bear of a time polishing them. In the areas
where I want to keep the texture (scratch marks really) I get nowhere
with the tripoli on a brush, and the brighter areas are taking much
longer to work up a polish. I went back to the local caster with a
piece from each group and we went through the whole casting process
together trying to figure out where the difference came in between
the two. The only thing he could come up with was that the first
casting house might have put them through a polishing tumbler. I’d
really like to give the local caster my business, but the time I’m
spending polishing these things is way to long.
This leads me into part two of this message. I’m going into small
scale production with these pieces. I have a small rotary tumbler
I’ve never used but am looking at buying a magnetic tumbler. I want
to polish my pieces witha minimum loss of any detail and texture. Can
I do this in the tumbler? From what I can gather I need to use steel
shot in the tumbler to burnish the pieces and this will remove some
of the very light textures on them, and not get into the undercut
areas. I had thought of using walnut shells, but get the impression
that that media is use in vibrating tumblers.
Any response will be greatfully appreciated. Cathy Icardo (in Anjou,
France)
ps. I discovered you all at Orchid a month or so ago and can’t
believe my good luck…