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Polishing
All items
including jewellery and object d'art need to be polished
when all other
processes of manufacture have been completed, as precious
metals do not shine naturally.
Silver polishing is
a very highly skilled craft which can be done by lathe or
hand, using polishing brushes charged with emery composition
or leather or felt bobs used with an abrasive pumice powder
with vegetable oil.
After this process
Calico mops are used with a composition such as Tripoli.
The finishing
process uses a much softer mop using rouge after which each
piece is cleaned, using a Ultrasonic cleaner or with a
Caustic Cleaner.
The Silver Polisher
works very closely with the Silversmith, as preparation is a
very important part of the process, there would certainly be
no point in assembling all the different components to
discover it is not practical to polish.
Jewellery is a
little different and needs preparation before the Setter
sets the stones in the mounts, this is done by a process we
call Threading which is wax cotton threaded into each hole
and polished by hand until each hole shines. This process
helps give light to the stone once set.
Once the stones
are set, it is then polished once more to loupe standard.
An additional
function of the skilled polisher is electroplating and
gilding
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7591 5098