[Jewelry making - Article 01087] - [Orchid] Polishing sterling silver problem

[johnmorra]

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    I finished a knotted sterling silver braclet and usually I just toss
    in a tumbler for burnishing. Because of all the crevices I couldnt
    get it to polish to my liking and in addition the burnishing showed
    toolmarks on the inside of the knots. Rather than to tediously sand
    out the tool marks I had the bright idea of throwing the braclet
    back into the tumbler ( using st. steel shot) with some 500 grit. I
    let this tumble for a while. When I pulled the piece out it had a
    very fine sanding throughout the piece. Thrilled that save me labor
    time I then cleaned everything up and then thru the piece back in
    with the st. steel sho and some aluminum oxide for polish. its been
    24 hours of continous tumbling and the sterling silver piece looks
    the color of pewter. Very grey. On top of that I think I lost my
    sharp edges of my tumbling shot. I have a buffer, so I gave it a
    buffing with red rouge, sleaned it up with a toothbrush. I though
    that improved it a bit, so I threw it back into the tumbler to see
    what results I might get. It came out grey again. Is there some
    chemical process going on? TI thouroughly cleaned the shot so there
    definatly is no grit in the tumbler. I feel like annealing the whole
    braclet again, pickleing and then tumbling agian. 

    What steps should I take? I am looking for a bright finish, not a
    dull grey pewter look alike. 


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