Polishing Jewelry

This may seem like a stupid question, but here goes. When you believe you have finished a piece, and have polished it, and then you realize that something is wrong and you have to use the torch on it again, and pickle it, do you have to go through all the levels of polishing again?
Thanks,
Emily

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Hi,

I would say yes, if you added scratches while handling…or have solder to clean up…

…go over it with rouge or equivalent to “see where you are at”…look at the surfaces and decide…may just need a final polish with rouge or equivalent…

julie

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Yes, especially if you created any fire scale or stain in the process. I regularly pre-polish pieces before I solder them together. This allows me to finish places that I couldn’t get to after assembly. If you clean the pieces well and then coat them with boric acid and alcohol, burning off the alcohol first, go ahead and flux the joint and solder and you are less likely to get fire scale or stain. Since it is the last soldering operation, you will likely be using a lower melting temperature solder. This also helps to prevent these problems. Once assembled, re-polish as needed. I have noticed that my soldering in general goes better if I coat with boric acid and alcohol first. Good luck…Rob

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Thanks all. Every response was helpful.