After you oxidize, you have to polish, polish, polish. And then polish some more. This is where you really notice that not all polishing cloths are made equal!
To be fair, I do put the polishing cloths through their paces when removing the extra oxidization. They are designed to keep already polished beads looking their best, not to take black beads and make them shine.
You can buy polishing cloths from the same sites that sell metal clay supplies, but so far I’ve been using the cloths that come with brand-name beads that I buy. The best polishing cloths that I’ve found so far are Ohm’s. I’ve also tried Trollbeads and Pandora polishing cloths and a no-name polishing cloth that I received with a different jewellery purchase. All work, but require more manual effort than Ohm’s to remove the extra oxidization.
Because I was going through so many polishing cloths, I’ve tried washing them when they get really dirty (otherwise, you’re really just moving the blackness from one side to the other). It works to a certain degree, but then they really become second (or third) pass polishing tools rather than working to get the initial oxidization off. I also need to wash my hands quite a bit as I polish since the oxidization comes off on my hands and then end up as black as the cloths. More than once I’ve had one side nicely polished, turned the bead to do another part, and discovered that my blackened fingers messed up my beautifully polished side!
An interesting tool that I’ve found is some anti-tarnish material works beautifully as a first-pass polishing cloth. It won’t make a bead shine, but it will take off the darker oxidization so that I’m not wasting as many polishing cloths. Unfortunately, I can’t remember anymore where I got these little anti-tarnish squares!
That supply is running low, though, so soon I will have to break down and buy my own polishing cloths. Which is fine; soon I need some more metal clay :)
Do you mind putting in a little extra elbow grease sometimes to get things the way that you want it? Or would you pay more for something that required less effort?
I don’t mind elbow grease, however the best thing I EVER bought was my electric reamer for cleaning out bead release from bead holes, turns a horrible slow job into a very quick and easy job!
Mars xx
I have seen electric polishers used by some of the more prolific bead makers, but I have no idea where to find one. And, at my pace, I don’t know if it would be worth the money.
I tried some buffing wheels on my dremmel to try and speed up the polishing, but they didn’t work so well :D
It all depends on how much the extra amount is :) For example I’ll buy the expensive cleaner for the worktops in the kitchen because it simply works better and faster (and I always make a mess when cooking and baking :)), but that’s only a few pence more. If it was pounds, I’d have to see what the difference actually was to decide.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
That is true, price is usually a factor for me. I would pay a bit more for polishing cloths that did a good job, as long as I was confident that they would work. The problem is you have to buy them first to make sure that they work :) The same is true for the emery boards that I use – if I found one that made the surface smooth, I would pay quite a bit more to save myself the time trying to smooth it!