Lambswool buffing wheel

A lambswool or muslin buffing wheel is a very soft mop used with the last coat of "rouge" polish.

Wet and dry papers

Wet and dry papers come in varying degrees of abrasiveness, from very rough to very fine.

Polish bars

Tripoli: a brown bar, used at the first polish

Green: a green bar, used as a general purpose polish

White diamond: a white bar, used to give a high polish

Rouge: used for the final polish

Burnisher

A burnisher is a polished stainless steel tool that is rubbed firmly against metal edges to give a high shine.

Text 9 Precious metals

Platinum, gold, and silver are precious metals. In their pure state they do not oxidize and are not corroded by acids. If you have ever seen an ancient gold coin that has just been dug up from the ground, you will appreciate how the dirt just rubs off to reveal the gold in exactly the same state as it was when it was minted all those centuries ago.

It is mainly the precious metals that are used for jewelry making. They have properties that make them ideal for bending, shaping, and polishing and for being able to show off, to their best advantage, any stones or enamels that are set into them. Unfortunately, gold and silver are too soft in their pure state to be practical for most jewelry applications, so they are combined with other metals to make alloys, to make them suitable for different uses, and in a range of colors and costs. These alloys are still known as precious metals, but their quality is strictly controlled and guaranteed by the hallmarking process. To start out, and for making mock-ups, metals such as copper, nickel, and silver can be used. Stainless steel, which is very hard, is used for pressing into precious metals to get a textured finish, but it is not practical for jewelry making. As you become more confident working with metals, you may want to work with silver, before moving on to the different carat golds and to platinum.

Properties of precious metals

Each metal and alloy has a unique melting temperature and specific gravity (density). These properties are useful to know when you are working with metals.

Platinum (Pt)

Platinum is a dense white metal that is often used for mounting diamonds. It is the most expensive of the noble metals. Owing to the popularity of white metals in recent years, platinum has become hugely popular. It is hardwearing and relatively easy to work but must be soldered at very high temperatures. Because it is so pure, platinum does not oxidize when heated, so solder joins do not have to be fluxed and consequently, platinum work does not need pickling. Platinum can be given a highly polished finish before soldering that will not be affected by the heat. If platinum is heated incorrectly, with a reducing flame, it can become grainy and brittle.

Gold (Au)is described in carats. The word "carat" is also used to describe the weight of a stone, but when referring to gold, it describes the proportion of gold to alloy that makes up 24 parts. Silver, palladium, copper, and occasionally zinc are added in different proportions to make different colored golds. The lower the carat the more different colors can be created because there are more parts that are not gold. Melting temperatures vary in different alloys; for example, 18-carat white gold has a higher melting point than 18-carat yellow gold. White gold contains palladium, which has a higher melting point than the silver and copper in yellow gold.

Like all precious metals, gold should be annealed before it is worked. Higher carat golds stay softer for longer than those below 14 carat because of their higher gold content. Metal will only harden as it is worked, so if annealed gold is left for several days, it will not have hardened by the time you resume work on it.