How do you get a high gloss shine on sterling silver when metalsmithing?

Question

making bracelets from sterling silver

Answer 1

It depends on what the surface condition of the silver is. If it's real rough you may want to start with wet/dry sandpaper, the dark kind, in grits of 400, 600, 1000, and finishing with 2000. Then you are ready to polish. It's best to use a Muslin buffing wheel on a Dremel tool or bench grinder, but it can be done by hand with very soft cloths. You can use different grades of jewelers' rouge finishing with red rouge for a highly polished finish (this is the best way to go but expensive unless you are making a lot of jewelry, and you need a different buffing wheel for each rouge), or you can use 3M rubbing compound followed by Brasso (your rotary tools will sling these products everywhere unlike rouges, so I have a little clear plastic "Dremel shed" on my workbench to prevent this. The compound/Brasso thing works pretty well but rouge is best.

Experiment with what you need to start with, be it one of the grades of sandpaper or compound/rouge. If you make a mistake you will have the tools to correct it. If you need help contact me here. Good luck