{"id":21492,"date":"2019-06-13T12:37:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T11:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/?p=21492"},"modified":"2023-07-17T13:59:47","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T12:59:47","slug":"what-tools-do-i-need-to-polish-jewellery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/2019\/06\/13\/what-tools-do-i-need-to-polish-jewellery\/","title":{"rendered":"What Tools do I Need to Polish Jewellery? – A Student Toolkit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\tWhat Tools do I Need to Polish Jewellery?\n\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Finishing\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n

\n\t\tBuilding Your First Polishing Tool Kit\n\t<\/h2>\n\t

What tools do I need to polish jewellery? Your finishing & polishing tool kit is a vital consideration when you start producing finished pieces. Finishing is often an overlooked area of study with a lot of courses only offering basic information at best. I certainly found my knowlege when I left unisversity didnt quite get me the results I saw on other peoples work at shows. It can be really frustrating when scratches still show and the shine just isnt happening.<\/p>\n\t

There really are only a few items needed to get you started.<\/p>\n

How you tackle your tool collection depends on how you are going to polish, by hand or by machine.<\/p>\n

It is ok to start polishing by hand and you’ll get adequate results but adding a bit of power in the form of a pendant drill<\/a> or micromotor<\/a> will help massively!<\/p>\n

If you have the space a bench polisher<\/a> would eventually be really handy. You can get good results without but it does speed things up which is pretty essential if it is a business for you.<\/p>\n\t

Finishing by Hand<\/h2>\n

After deburring and smoothing with a needle file<\/a> you’ll need to smooth the surface further and remove all file marks. Traditionally it is done with Wet & Dry<\/a> paper moving up through the grits from 500g to around 1200g.<\/p>\n

3M polishing papers<\/a> are very popular with beginners as they are just so easy to use! They are often the subject of jewellery making blog posts. Arguably though I would say that micromesh is a superior longer lasting product.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"abrasives\n\t

You can speed things up and keep your tool kit very simple with Micromesh in sheet and flexifile form. Starting with just a 4-way flexifile you can actually go from coarse sanding through to a high gloss finish. If you want minimal tools this really is your best call! I like to pair it with a 100\/150mx file for initial smoothing and shaping, though coarse it is possible to start polishing with mops and compound after using this file.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"Jewellery\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"rotary\"\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t

Have You Got Polishing Equipment?<\/h2>\n

As a beginner or student you may well have access to equipment for polishing. Normally in the form of a pendant motor or if you are lucky a micromotor!<\/p>\n

If you’d like to invest in your own equipment you do have some nice options available.<\/p>\n\t

Foredom SR Pendant Motor<\/a> – If you’d like a classic pendant motor then we’d always recommend a well respected Foredom. Pair with the H.20 quick-release handpiece to make changing mops super speedy. We do also offer an economy option in the very sturdy LY128<\/a> it always proves a popular machine for jewellers.<\/p>\n\t

209 Strong Micromotor<\/a> – a compact system that is portable and quiet. Ideal for home use. The advantage of a micromotor is the thin cord which is light and flexible and produces very little vibration.<\/p>\n\t

Rotary Finishing<\/h2>\n

Essentially any tool that spins is rotary, this speeds up polishing immeasurably. The results will also be better with the right tools. It is possible to keep these tools to a minimum also. As a basic kit I would recommend the following;<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mounted felt bobs<\/a> for polishing inside rings and getting into nooks and crannies.<\/li>\n
  2. Mounted Stitched Mops<\/a> for removing scratches and for polishing.<\/li>\n
  3. 3M Radial Discs<\/a> in yellow, blue, peach & light green for textured pieces, findings etc.<\/li>\n
  4. Cotton Yarn mops<\/a> for the final buff.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\t

    Don’t Forget…<\/h2>\n

    You will also need compound! Compound is effectively abrasive grit and wax carrier.<\/p>\n

    There are two stages of compound (some people like a 3rd stage but its not essential)<\/p>\n

    Cutting – Removing lines put in by files and abrasive papers and flattening the surface ready for…<\/p>\n

    Polishing – The final stage, you should have a pretty good finish before you get here, it literally just takes out any fine swirling or scratches from the cutting compound.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"P175\"\n\t

    We would recommend as a very simple start, Tripoli (cutting) and Rouge (polishing)<\/a> which are traditional and effective.<\/p>\n

    4 x 1” bars are about the right size and are the most cost effective option.<\/p>\n

    However if you would like to start as you mean to go on Menzerna is the best and will last you.<\/p>\n

    456G<\/a> (cutting) this is a really nice coarse compound and will work well straight after using a 100\/150mx micromesh file leaving a very bright finish.<\/p>\n

    P175<\/a> (yellow metals) M5<\/a> (white metals) Polishing – it is not necessary to have both P175, will do both yellow and white metals. M5 is slightly finer.<\/p>\n\t

    So there you have it a simple low down of the basic kit needed to start finishing your jewellery.<\/p>\n

    The next step from here is setting up a bench polisher with mops and compound. You can improve your finish again and speed the process up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is the expert guide to everything beginner’s need when polishing jewellery. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2514,"featured_media":35825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21492"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35828,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21492\/revisions\/35828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polishingjewellery.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}