Any advice on silver polishing post patina?

Hi everyone,

I've got a piece coming in polished silver that I'm planning on adding a patina too for detail in a few areas (via soaking the entire piece). I'd like to then remove all the patina over most of the piece and if possible try to get a high polish back out of it (as best as I can do).

Any advice? I've never done any silver polishing before, and I'm not sure how adding the patina might otherwise damage the surface and require additional steps. Closest thing I have to a buffing wheel is a dremel if there's any use in that (any specific wheels/attachments?), but I don't really know where to start aside from grabbing some silver polishing compound.

Any way to get it up to a mirror shine or approximating what you get from premium silver?

Thanks!

-Rhalin

For a really dark patina, which I like, I use a product like this. There are numerous brands that have this same formula of hydrochloric acid and tellurium so you don't need to use this particular brand if you don't want to. Another way to patinate sterling silver is to use liver of sulfur. This also comes in numerous brands using basically the same chemical composition. I don't like using it though because it has a very strong odor of sulfur and it doesn't make really dark patina compared to the sulfuric acid with tellurium. One other popular way is to use ordinary bleach that you can buy just about anywhere that sells laundry detergent. Not a color safe bleach though, you'll want a bleach that is composed of sodium hypochlorite, like Clorox. This will give you a patina that is light to medium dark gray.

Once your item is patinated it is very difficult to remove the patinated areas. To do this effectively with a rotary tool you need these. These 220 grit 3M radial bristle discs are great for removing patina and also smoothing out print lines. You'll also want the mandrels for these too. Once you get the patina sanded off your beautiful polish provided by Shapeways is going to be nonexistent. It'll have a dull frosty look to it, however you can get it right back to being immaculately polished again by using these, followed by these. These 1 µm 3M radial bristle discs nearly instantly produce an immaculate quality polish. Trust me when I tell you! You will be amazed!

One other thing I like to do after polishing with the 1 µm 3M radial bristle discs is I like to use a Blitz polishing cloth. This brings the polish one small step above immaculate and the end result is absolutely glorious.

Post pics of your results!

Yeah, I've been mucking about with what I think is liver of sulfur (judging by the smell, no markings that mention the active ingredients) on some silver wire I've got, and the color ended up kind of a dark bronze and was hoping to find something better - so Midas it is! I did notice the kind of "foggy" look after brushing the patina-ed wire down with fine steel wool, hence some of my concerns.

I hadn't come across the radial wheels in any of my searching yet, so I'll give those a try. Fortunately, I've got a beat up silver id-style tag I made a couple years ago that I can practice on before trying on what I'm getting in (which was made as gift and I have a short timeline to get this right.).

I'll post pics if I don't destroy it trying to do this I designed the pendent to include some wire wrapping/weaving, which is mostly what I want the patina for, so the results should be interesting!

Thanks!

-R

Hmmm I did the patina of these two rings using liver of sulfur, it only needed some ordinary silver polish to remove the patina (with a soft cloth) where I didn't want it.

To remove it without using some kind of chemical reaction requires abrasion; in your case the abrasive is in the silver polish you used. Also though, depending on what brand of silver polish you used it may have also contained chemicals that help break up the chemistry of the patina. What I mean by using the words extremely difficult is that one cannot just wipe it off with a paper towel or some such.

Nice designs by the way.

OK, but using the silver polish would not ruin "your beautiful polish provided by Shapeways" the way your rotary tools would. (;

Thank you UniverseBecoming!

True. What brand off silver polish did you use? I'd like to give it a try.

I think it is a local Swedish brand, not sure if it is available worldwide... it is called Häxans http://www.tingstad.se/en/product/1257885

Nope! Not available to the US. I wrote to the company and they told me that they will not sell it to me.

I noticed that it was made by the huge German company Henkel, but apparently they made silver polish over a decade ago and no loner make it nowadays.

Thanks for telling us about it though.

Wow, you found out a lot about it!

Maybe I should start exporting this product.

What you can do is get the MSDS from the page (though it may cause swedish chef syndrome in unwary americans) and look for available products with similar formulation - ammonia solution appears to be the primary declared ingredient.

Hah! I did actually order some jewelry red rouge polish as well based on some reading. We'll have to see how everything comes out whenever my prints get in. I think waiting is always the hardest part of this

Good idea mkroeker! Perhaps if something can be found like Tarn X or some such it could be used to slightly dampen an applicator and then that could be used to remove or partially remove the patina from all of the high areas. I like using the 3M discs, but if there is an even easier way then I'm all for it. Thanks for the suggestions Mandelwerk.

UGG! I tried red rouge once and hated it. It leaves residue all over the place that needs to be removed just to even see what's going on UNDER the residue whereas the 3M discs leave no residue so it's easy to see how your polishing is coming along as you polish.

Edit: Meant to write Tarn X, not Ternex.

swedish chef syndrome

Yes, I found that as well.
5-10% "Ammonium oleate" and 0.1 -1% "Ammonium solution" What ever that is...

@UniverseBecoming: Confirming: No residue from häxans, only to wipe of with a cloth.

I did some experiments using an existing piece. The rouge does a pretty good job, but doesn't seem to quite get out all the fine scratches (this was a heavily beaten up pendant I wear every day). It was reasonably transparent, just a residue/film as I was working. The 1 micron discs though - next level stuff. Managed to get out tiny scratches and just _slightly_ more mirror to the finish after using the cloth post-polish.

I'm having to work in secret for this gift prep, but here are some hastily taken "before" images of what I'll be starting with. Item is ~4cm tall. I sadly have no macro lens, so this is the best I could get in the time I had.

I probably won't get a chance to show this pre-patina, but there's a blue Swarovski crystal suspended in the center of the circle as well (tested with the Max Black, and it doesn't hurt it).

Nice work so far. Thanks for the images.

Patina'd and polished tonight. Many lessons learned (adjusting dremel speed, etc.) I polished with the rouge first because the wheel was thicker and it got a lot of the patina off faster than the tiny discs would (only ordered 3), and because the discs are more expensive so gotta make 'em last! But those discs helped a LOT. They really brought back the mirror a lot more, and also fit into smaller spaces easier. In some areas, I think I ended up being a bit -too- aggressive and wish I'd left it a bit darker, but I'm happy with the overall result.

The rouge -did- need washing off occasionally, the residue made it difficult to tell if something needed more polishing or was just diry.

Crappy phone camera pictures attached, can't get good enough light for better in the middle of the night. One shows the pendant after the max black. Honestly, I may try to design with this more in mind later.

I'll try to get better pics if/when I get the chance, and maybe post a bit more info on lessons learned.

Looks amazing! Nice design too! I'll bet the receiver of the gift will be well pleased.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. If I discover anything with my experiments on this subject I'll report back too.