[Jewelry making - Article 00287] - Re: [Orchid] Using walnut shell with stone-set jewelry

[Don Rogers]

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>      Can I use walnut shell with stone-set jewelry? Including turqoise
>     and amber? 

    NO Any abrasive action will attack the softest part of the stone and
    leave it undercut.  Tumbling turquoise by its self is a task not
    easily mastered and requires much experimentation to get a mediocre
    finish. Also, what works on stone from one batch might not on the
    next batch due to the differences in the stones.  NEVER attempt to
    tumble amber.  To attempt to polish out a piece of jewelry with the
    stone set is asking for trouble. To attempt to polish out more than
    one at a time is asking for a disaster. 

    The use of walnut shell is best confined to large smooth pieces with
    no inside corners or pattern.  The walnut shell is crushed to about
    1/5 to 2mm in size and will not get into corners or cracks well.  To
    do this, you need an assortment of polishing shot, pins, triangles,
    flying saucers, ball, etc. along with a good polish media like a
    burnishing soap.  Using this combination on jewelry with the stone
    set,  especially on turquoise and amber, is sure to trash the stone. 

    Lastly, fire scale is best resolved in methods other than tumbling.
    You can't control where a tumbler is going to "polish" or grind off
    metal so if you were successful in removing the fire scale, you
    would also grind off a similar amount of metal from the rest of the
    piece, and most of that would come off high parts of the piece,
    destroying any pattern. 

Don

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