Tutorial Thursday: Get your groove on with silver finishings!
At i.materialise we already offer four different silver finishings (gloss, high gloss, sandblasted and satin), but we’ve also seen some nice examples of people experimenting with other finishes. Listen to their experiences!
What do you need to do to get such a cool finish on your silver ring like the one from Universe Becoming?
Before and after.
James Kincaid, the designer: “All I did for that is dip it in concentrated bleach that I bought at the super market. I put the bleach in a basket, put the design in and let it sit in the bleach for about 5 minutes, which turns it a nice dark gray. Then I just removed the dark gray off all of the high spots with a Dremel tool and a wire wheel. After that I hand polish it with a polishing cloth. I like this method the best; it’s the fastest and the bleach is not very dangerous or too smelly. I would highly recommend this method to other people!”
Before and after.
“Other chemicals that I sometimes use for patinating are sulfuric acid with tellurium or liver of sulfur. However, the liver of sulfur smells horrible and the sulfuric acid with tellurium is dangerous so I have to wear eye protection and gloves, which I hate. For removing the patina off of the high spots I sometime use a sand blaster with glass micro beads or I throw them in the vibratory tumbler with a cutting medium. For polishing I sometimes use the Dremel with a polishing wheel or I throw them in the vibratory tumbler with a polishing medium.”
Or have you seen this ring, designed by John Allwine? He uses the same process as James to give his ring a rougher look, but he has also heard of another technique which he still needs to test.
John's finished ring.
John: “To do it I just dropped the ring in a small bowl of bleach so it was submerged. I let it sit for about 20 seconds. You can go a little longer if its not dark enough, but I’ve heard if you leave it too long that it can cause pitting in your piece. A safer but longer process (that I haven’t tried) is to break up some hard boiled eggs and put the ring in a ziplock bag with them overnight. Never tried it but I heard that tarnishes silver as well. Then it’s just a matter of polishing the ring. Any sort of jewelry polish would work. You don’t really even need it, but it takes a lot less elbow grease to do so. I’ve also used a dremel with a soft attachment to speed up the polishing process. I read that toothpaste worked well as a polish if you don’t have anything else, so I gave that a try and it worked well, but it can get stuck in crevices and takes a lot of rinsing to get it out.”
Would you like to share your 3D printing stories? Send an e-mail to tatiana.dewee@materialise.com!
