You may wonder why you can never make your old jewelry shine like new, or you may wonder why the $ 15 silver item at a market has nothing like the finish you see on a $ 120 item at a jewelry store.

Well let me quickly take you through the process I go through to finish my jewelry pieces.

First of all, an item comes back from the casting process and has a few pieces of metal hanging down and the finish is wrinkled or looks like it has been sandblasted. These are the steps I take:

1. I use a heavy file and remove any dags or sharp pieces of metal that are left from the casting.

2. Next, I use a light metal file and file the item as smoothly as I can. I also use round, square and triangle files to get into those hard to get places.

3. Next, I use various grades of sandpaper, starting with a medium grit and sanding all the elements. Then I use a finer grade to sand again.

4. Now I place the items in a metal shot glass. It is a mix of small ball bearings and pointed stainless steel parts. Stir in this with a solution of water and rinse aid. I leave it spinning for several hours.

5. Now I use a rope with enamel to get into the holes and crevices where my other tools cannot reach. I pass the rope through the holes and polish the inside of them. This takes a long time and I don’t like to do it.

6. Now I use a mechanical polisher with a grease called Tripoli that actually comes from Tripoli and I use it to polish the item.

7. Now I put this in an ultrasonic machine with a solution of hot water and detergent to clean the Tripoli enamel from the item.

8. Now I use another polisher on the machine called Rouge. It is a red polish and now this will give my item a great shine.

9. Re-enter the ultrasound for about twenty minutes and remove the blush. Then dry the garment carefully with a soft cloth.

10. Finally I get an enamel impregnated cloth and hand polished the garment to a gorgeous glossy finish.

That’s all about it! Now I put the item in a jewelry box without touching it with my fingers. Sometimes I wear a glove for this because I don’t want my finger marks on the item.

Now if you’ve been wearing your wedding ring 24/7 for ten years and you take it off and try to polish it by hand, you know why it will never reach me.