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How it Works: Working With Platinum
Stuller trainer Angela Busby demonstrates how to work with platinum, including how to prep and polish your piece. Items used include: GRS Microblock Ball Vise 3M® Tri-M-Ite® Pre-Cut Abrasive Paper 500 Grit Abrasive Board Kit Red and Blue Radial Bristles Cylinder Polishing Rubber Wheel Luxor Red Polish Soft White MM Brush Mounted Inside Buff Mini Buff Avivor Polishing Compound
Products in How it Works: Working With Platinum Video
Microblock Ball Vise
$429.30
Abrasive Board Kit
$10.55
Video Transcript
My name is Angela Busby and today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about working with platinum. Platinum can be pretty difficult to work with so if you have the proper tools we'll show you a few techniques that can help you work with platinum where it's not such a struggle to polish. We're going to start out we're going to remove the sprue. This is a raw piece of platinum. What I did was I went ahead and filled a couple of the spots that might have had a little problem maybe with porosity or they might have had a little hole in it or whatever it was that the issue was. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to remove the sprue right now. Now normally you can remove the sprue on a sander but because we're doing the video and we're going to try to show you the tips at bench. And of course when you're shaping your piece back from removing your sprue you want to make sure that you maintain the design keeping your round shank round your flat shanks flat so be careful when you're working it. And I'm going to do one continuous stroke because I don't want the file marks to be in a crisscross pattern. It's much harder to remove that way. So now that I've removed my sprue I'm going to take my file marks off with a buff stick. Once I have removed the file marks off then I'll start detailing the piece.
And so one thing I want to talk about when you're working with platinum is burnishing your pieces. It's a very good idea to burnish the pieces. Here we're fortunate enough to where we can tumble the pieces and by tumbling the pieces the steel shot will actually burnish at the same time and it actually impacts and compounds the platinum to where if there are any surface irregularities or any kind of texture, the tumbler will go ahead and pound that for you and basically it's like burnishing. So we're going to go ahead and hand burnish so we can give you an idea what the burnishing process is like.
So what you want to do now is after you've buff stick do you want to make sure you clean off of the grit from the buff stick before you start burnishing otherwise you're just going to put scratches all over your piece. So we're going to go ahead and do that, give it a second or two it doesn't have to be for a very long time. Alright so the next thing I'm going to do on here is I see a couple of spots that may have an issue with maybe a little porosity or a little pitting so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and burnish right now. So this will be your burnishing tool that you'll use in your flex shaft by adding a little bit of oil to the tool can prevent some of the scratches that are left on from the burnisher. And I'm not pressing super hard but I am putting a little pressure as I apply the burnisher to the piece because we do want to pack down that porosity or pitting whatever it is that you're you're going after. And remember when you're burnishing you are work hardening the surface and by work hardening the surface this will allow you to remove your scratches much easier when you're polishing. It's easier to handle the platinum. So now we'll start prepping our piece going after all of the area in the head and with that we're going to use an ultrasonic polisher.
The ultrasonic polisher uses a ceramic stone. This particular ceramic stone I'm using a 1200 grit. Try to keep that 1200 grit for platinum. You don't want too many deep scratches it's just more scratches you'll have to remove in the finishing. This ultrasonic polisher is a wonderful tool that will get into the head area and all of those little areas that you may have trouble with. You can sharpen your stone using any of your sharpening stones, whatever you have at your bench, you may even use a buff stick. So we have it nice and sharp and now we can get in between the prongs. So once I'm satisfied with removing the texture that I don't want on there, I'm going to go ahead and change tools and I'm going to use my radial bristles to remove my scratches that I've just put from the ultrasonic polisher. And I'm going to start with the red radial bristle. Of the two that I use the red is the coarser of the two. These are so flexible to get right in between the prongs this is pretty nice on platinum. So we did that. We're going to go ahead and change to the blue radial bristle and get an even smoother finish. We'll get in between the prongs, in between the head. Then when you're done your surface has been removed.
Now we're going to switch tools. We're going to start working on our inside and all we're trying to keep the contour of the ring rounded. So we're going to start using some inside buff sticks and we're going to start to contour the piece and remove all of our flaws. So it's a comfort fit and I want to remain a comfort fit so I'm going to use something that can keep the piece round and I'm just going to go on the inside and I'm putting this comfort fit back. We can go on the outside with these, it's just like a buff stick. And once I've stepped down the sandpaper or stepped up as it is with the grits I'm going to finish with like a 1000 grit and I'm gonna change over to an inside cylinder rubber wheel. It's actually called a craytex wheel and this it gives me an even smoother finish. Okay follow that on the outside. I want to make sure my shank is nice and rounded. See how nice that finish is? And if you take all these steps when you get to the polishing process the polishing process it's going to be a breeze for you and working with platinum will no longer be a struggle. So I'm gonna go all of this with this wheel.
My next step will be to clean this piece. I want to remove all of the grit before I start polishing. If you're not removing all of the grit what happens is the grit may get stuck in if there's any kind of surface or texture porosity your grit gets stuck in there and then when you go to polish it you're putting that grit on your wheel and you're going to take that porosity with that sand in it and it's just going to drag it out. So porosity will be almost impossible to to fill or to work with if you're just dragging that grit in there. So we're going to go ahead and remove all of the grit from the piece making sure when we do polish we're not going to create ourselves some drag lines and porosity and contaminate our buffs. It's very important that we don't contaminate our buffs. Always clean the piece really good after I prep before I start polishing all right that'll be good. Now let's start our polishing.
We're going to start polishing the head area with the MM brush. I'm going to flip my little towel over or start with a fresh one so we're making sure that we're not applying the same grit and sand paper on our polish. I'll start with the red the Luxor pink is the polish that I use to polish the head and to do a rough cut down polish. So we're going to go ahead. And you get in the head we're going to make sure we get in between all the prongs and now this MM brush is a little small so I'm going to switch to a larger one so I can get in the head. And it can reach down into that head area and there is a list there's going to be a list at some point in this video giving you all of the tools that are used, the item numbers, the grits of the sand papers. Now once you're satisfied with your cut down on your head area, we're going to move to the shank area and then I'll use one of these inside buffs to do the inside of the shank and I'll contour my shank the half round part using the same polish. I don't want to change the design so I'm going to stay with something that's shaped like the inside. As you can see it's starting to take that luster and because the the Luxor pink is a cut down it's not going to have that real bright luster it is going to have a cut-down luster which is what you want. And we're going to go ahead and just start polishing. And this technique is mostly for the bench jewelers out there that may be polishing by hand. You can do some of this on a larger buff scale in manufacturing. Obviously we would do it on a large buff but we're doing a video so we're going to do it by hand. So we have this polished. I've taken all of the area down that I'd like. We've kept our shape of the piece and now I'll move to a mini buff. The same polish. Now it's even starting to take on an even more bright luster with a mini buff.
And so one thing I want to talk about when you're working with platinum is burnishing your pieces. It's a very good idea to burnish the pieces. Here we're fortunate enough to where we can tumble the pieces and by tumbling the pieces the steel shot will actually burnish at the same time and it actually impacts and compounds the platinum to where if there are any surface irregularities or any kind of texture, the tumbler will go ahead and pound that for you and basically it's like burnishing. So we're going to go ahead and hand burnish so we can give you an idea what the burnishing process is like.
So what you want to do now is after you've buff stick do you want to make sure you clean off of the grit from the buff stick before you start burnishing otherwise you're just going to put scratches all over your piece. So we're going to go ahead and do that, give it a second or two it doesn't have to be for a very long time. Alright so the next thing I'm going to do on here is I see a couple of spots that may have an issue with maybe a little porosity or a little pitting so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and burnish right now. So this will be your burnishing tool that you'll use in your flex shaft by adding a little bit of oil to the tool can prevent some of the scratches that are left on from the burnisher. And I'm not pressing super hard but I am putting a little pressure as I apply the burnisher to the piece because we do want to pack down that porosity or pitting whatever it is that you're you're going after. And remember when you're burnishing you are work hardening the surface and by work hardening the surface this will allow you to remove your scratches much easier when you're polishing. It's easier to handle the platinum. So now we'll start prepping our piece going after all of the area in the head and with that we're going to use an ultrasonic polisher.
The ultrasonic polisher uses a ceramic stone. This particular ceramic stone I'm using a 1200 grit. Try to keep that 1200 grit for platinum. You don't want too many deep scratches it's just more scratches you'll have to remove in the finishing. This ultrasonic polisher is a wonderful tool that will get into the head area and all of those little areas that you may have trouble with. You can sharpen your stone using any of your sharpening stones, whatever you have at your bench, you may even use a buff stick. So we have it nice and sharp and now we can get in between the prongs. So once I'm satisfied with removing the texture that I don't want on there, I'm going to go ahead and change tools and I'm going to use my radial bristles to remove my scratches that I've just put from the ultrasonic polisher. And I'm going to start with the red radial bristle. Of the two that I use the red is the coarser of the two. These are so flexible to get right in between the prongs this is pretty nice on platinum. So we did that. We're going to go ahead and change to the blue radial bristle and get an even smoother finish. We'll get in between the prongs, in between the head. Then when you're done your surface has been removed.
Now we're going to switch tools. We're going to start working on our inside and all we're trying to keep the contour of the ring rounded. So we're going to start using some inside buff sticks and we're going to start to contour the piece and remove all of our flaws. So it's a comfort fit and I want to remain a comfort fit so I'm going to use something that can keep the piece round and I'm just going to go on the inside and I'm putting this comfort fit back. We can go on the outside with these, it's just like a buff stick. And once I've stepped down the sandpaper or stepped up as it is with the grits I'm going to finish with like a 1000 grit and I'm gonna change over to an inside cylinder rubber wheel. It's actually called a craytex wheel and this it gives me an even smoother finish. Okay follow that on the outside. I want to make sure my shank is nice and rounded. See how nice that finish is? And if you take all these steps when you get to the polishing process the polishing process it's going to be a breeze for you and working with platinum will no longer be a struggle. So I'm gonna go all of this with this wheel.
My next step will be to clean this piece. I want to remove all of the grit before I start polishing. If you're not removing all of the grit what happens is the grit may get stuck in if there's any kind of surface or texture porosity your grit gets stuck in there and then when you go to polish it you're putting that grit on your wheel and you're going to take that porosity with that sand in it and it's just going to drag it out. So porosity will be almost impossible to to fill or to work with if you're just dragging that grit in there. So we're going to go ahead and remove all of the grit from the piece making sure when we do polish we're not going to create ourselves some drag lines and porosity and contaminate our buffs. It's very important that we don't contaminate our buffs. Always clean the piece really good after I prep before I start polishing all right that'll be good. Now let's start our polishing.
We're going to start polishing the head area with the MM brush. I'm going to flip my little towel over or start with a fresh one so we're making sure that we're not applying the same grit and sand paper on our polish. I'll start with the red the Luxor pink is the polish that I use to polish the head and to do a rough cut down polish. So we're going to go ahead. And you get in the head we're going to make sure we get in between all the prongs and now this MM brush is a little small so I'm going to switch to a larger one so I can get in the head. And it can reach down into that head area and there is a list there's going to be a list at some point in this video giving you all of the tools that are used, the item numbers, the grits of the sand papers. Now once you're satisfied with your cut down on your head area, we're going to move to the shank area and then I'll use one of these inside buffs to do the inside of the shank and I'll contour my shank the half round part using the same polish. I don't want to change the design so I'm going to stay with something that's shaped like the inside. As you can see it's starting to take that luster and because the the Luxor pink is a cut down it's not going to have that real bright luster it is going to have a cut-down luster which is what you want. And we're going to go ahead and just start polishing. And this technique is mostly for the bench jewelers out there that may be polishing by hand. You can do some of this on a larger buff scale in manufacturing. Obviously we would do it on a large buff but we're doing a video so we're going to do it by hand. So we have this polished. I've taken all of the area down that I'd like. We've kept our shape of the piece and now I'll move to a mini buff. The same polish. Now it's even starting to take on an even more bright luster with a mini buff.
Once you've done all the cut down that you're satisfied with and you're ready to start some high polish, we'll go back to the MM brushes and we're going to start with our Avavor and our Oras. Switch back to a mini buff. Look how beautiful. Now if you're buffing on a large buff it will make this process a lot quicker. Now we want to use your Avavor on the on the initial buff to get the rest of the scratches off. Get all around. This is a nice firm buff so it will help with that polish process. Now we're going to move over to the Oras. Our final step of course is we're going to go ahead and clean the piece in the ultrasonic and remove all of the polish that we just put on and you should have a beautiful piece of platinum. After you clean and rinse and steam your piece, wipe it down with one of your polishing cloths and there's your piece of platinum.
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