For a great and different look to a high polished surface the
company I apprenticed at made their own texturing tools. You need
a hammer handpiece that has a screw on tip and a flexible shaft
machine. The first texture I used ( and still do extensively) has
the tip ground to a fine point. This point is touched to all
recessed areas hard to polish at a mediun to high RPM. This has a
pebble or stipple look. Contrasting this tone to the high polish
looks and wears great! You have to be careful not to let the
point jump out of the recessed areas or you have some unwanted
texture on your highly polished area. This also holds up quite
well for a period of yearsl. My wedding band has this texture and
still looks good after ten years. I replaced sand blasting with
this texture because if you make a model, add the texture to the
model, mold the piece and cast, you have a sand blasted look. You
just avoid polishing those areas textured. This means I don’t
have to sand blast every piece I make. Even on one of a kind
pieces this texture works great. You can do a similar job by
using the smallest round bur available but you don’t get the
pebble look quite as well. The second tool we made is actually a
real diamond (a chipped .02 pt. works well) bezel set into the
same type of screw on bit. I think these are sold comercially
now. You solder a silver bezel to the hammer handpiece screw on
bit and set the diamond upside down. Leave the culet of the
diamond exposed. Rouge the area you want to texture and lightly
rotate the diamond on the area in a circular motion again at a
medium to high RPM speed. You may do this in different directions
so you don’t create a shadow on the texture. We used to call
this a diamond Lame’ finish. The hammer handpiece can also set
stones, but I prefer the old chasing hammer and punch method
myself (more control around brittle and delicate stones).
Regards,
TR the Teacher & student