Famous Jewelry Collections: THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Sunday, September 23, 2012

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Posted: 23 Sep 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Even if you aren't into metal smith techniques, it is useful to know how to sand or polish metal. The metal discs you bought often comes as is and needs to be made shiny. Or, as with the last tutorial here, you've got a favorite jewelry piece which has become scratched.

There are two ways to go about it - the hard way and the easy way. Nancy Hamilton's first video show how she uses different grades of sandpaper to hand polish metal. Yep, elbow grease.

If you use wet/dry sandpaper, then dipping the sandpaper in a nearby bowl of water will remove the fine dust. Only for masochists!

Her second video shows why electrical tools were invented! Nancy has a flex shaft and again uses different grades of sanding discs to polish the metal. She uses a circular motion, different from the manual method. It's also important to keep the sanding disc moving otherwise worn spots or new flaws could occur.

I also appreciated Mason Allerby's tutorial which uses a Dremel drill with the right attachments to not only remove scratches but polish up his Bond bracelet to a high shine.