Polishing Handmade Silver Jewelry - Using Sandpaper To Polish Your Jewelry

Once you have made your silver item there are manysandpaper. Then polish from top to bottom with the
ways to polish your piece depending on the type of360 grade etc. Don't forget to do the back and sides
finish you want to achieve. But generally, the best wayof your piece as well to finish the item professionally.
to achieve a long-lasting, professional look is to polishJust using a piece of sandpaper on its own can be
your piece using sandpaper which you can easily buyquite awkward and it can be difficult to evenly rub the
from your local hardware store.piece of silver over the whole surface. But here is a
You will need to purchase different grades ofgreat tip you can follow to get around this problem.
sandpaper buying one sheet in each grade. The lowerFind a straight piece of wood that is about 30cm long
the grade number, the rougher the sandpaper is withby 4cm wide and 1cm thick. Place a sheet of
the higher grade numbers over 1000 being verysandpaper face down on a flat surface with the long
smooth.edge of your stick flush with the edge of your
Start with a lower grade of sandpaper and move yoursandpaper. Score the back of the sandpaper along
way up through the grades.the other edge of the stick. Follow this process to
A guide for the grades to use would be:wrap the sandpaper around the stick about 4 times.
1.    240 [start]Without unwrapping the sandpaper, tape the ends of
2.    360the sandpaper with something like parcel tape making
3.    400sure the tape has a surface you can write on. Make
4.    600sure you do not tape onto the stick. Remove the stick
5.    1200 [Finish]and then repeat for the other grades of sandpaper
Before starting to polish your silver piece, put on a pairyou have bought. Write the grade of the sandpaper on
of cheap cotton gloves to prevent body oilsthe tape at each end and do this with all of your
contaminating the surfaces you will be polishing.grades.
Starting off with the 240 grade sandpaper will help toWhen you are finished you will now have made
get the surface even and eliminate scratches. It issanding sleeves that can easily be slipped on and off
really important that you polish the piece of silver withof your stick as you move through the grades. As the
the sandpaper in one direction to make the surfacesandpaper becomes worn, simply peel back and tear
tidy and smooth.off that surface leaving the end tapes intact which will
Each time you change your sandpaper to the nextexpose the fresh layer of sandpaper underneath.
grade you need to change the direction that you areYou can also follow a similar technique with a flat
polishing in. This helps get rid of scratch marks morelollipop stick to make a smaller version to polish the
effectively and will give you a much better finish.more difficult areas of your silver and get a fantastic
So if, for example, you are polishing a pendant, startfinish.
polishing from left to right with the 240 grade