Tumbling Sterling Silver

Hi all,

I have a couple questions about tumbling sterling silver.

I purchased a rotary and a vibratory tumbler that I will dedicate
for burnishing and polishing, respectively. When is the best time to
use JAX blackner to antique my silver – before burnishing or before
polishing? I fabricate my pieces and like to add lots of texture,
including stampings. I will be using stainless steel to burnish and
Dry Shine III for polishing.

Is it OK to store my stainless steel dry or should it be left in a
liquid w/ 20% burnishing compound? Is this OK for long-term storage
and do I just rinse it off when I need to run a tumbler load?

Also, how should I store/care for my Dry Shine III (charged corn
cob). Can I leave it in the bowl of the vibratory tumbler until the
next batch I need to polish? How do I tell when a batch is worn out
and needs to be recharged or thrown away? Or about how long should I
expect each load to last?

Thanks for your help.
Tracy
Tracy’s Treasures

  I purchased a rotary and a vibratory tumbler that I will dedicate
for burnishing and polishing, respectively. When is the best time
to use JAX blackner to antique my silver -- before burnishing or
before polishing? I fabricate my pieces and like to add lots of
texture, including stampings. I will be using stainless steel to
burnish and Dry Shine III for polishing. 

Tracy - when you use the Jax or liver of sulpher - follow it with a
mild abrasive run - such as the fine clean cut media from Rio, in
your vibratory tumbler. This will smooth edges and get rid of sharp
sticky things in your textures. The high spots will have the black
stuff removed but it will stay dark in the depressions. Then run in
steel in your rotary.

If you were to apply the Jax and then immediately run in steel, you
would beat the blackener into the whole piece and it wouldn’t show
much texture at all. It’s really miserable to try and get a polish
on the high spots after beating the darkener into the silver.

I very seldom will run jewelry that has been treated with Jax or
liver of sulpher in the dry shine. It tends to dig in and remove
all the darkened recesses. I do use it for bringing up a high shine
when I don’t have the need to retain a contrast.

    Is it OK to store my stainless steel dry or should it be left
in a liquid w/ 20% burnishing compound? Is this OK for long-term
storage and do I just rinse it off when I need to run a tumbler
load?

You can do pretty much anything you want to stainless steel - it is
stainless. I store it dry.

how should I store/care for my Dry Shine III (charged corn cob).
Can I leave it in the bowl of the vibratory tumbler until the next
batch I need to polish? How do I tell when a batch is worn out and
needs to be recharged or thrown away? Or about how long should I
expect each load to last? 

The dry shine will lose it’s effectiveness after two or three runs -
but dont throw it away, recharge it with simichrome. If you keep it
covered tightly, it will go longer. FYI - it only really works well
when the media is warm - so run it for 30 min before adding your
jewelry. I like green buff better and use it mixed with wood pegs I
get from Gesswein.

For further reference, you might want to get the book I wrote on
tumbling - Tumble Finishing for Handmade Jewelry, 4th edition.
Gesswein, Rio, Otto Frei and Elaine Luther have it in stock.

Judy Hoch, G.G.