coming out of the pickle...tarnished?

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone would know what this means. Maybe I just
need to change my pickle; it _is_ getting a little old. I've just never
experienced this particular problem. Usually it just starts looking really
blue and doesn't work as well.

I'm working on a s/s pendant. Mainly it's just a couple bezel settings. So
I've been raising the fine silver, brash brushing it and whatnot. When it
came out of the pickle last time it was nice and white as expected. So I
brushed it, dried it and went to raise the fine silver again. Only this time
when I took it out of the pickle it was tarnished! I'd only heated it until
it took on a yellow tint, as usual, before pickling.

What gives? The tarnish came off with fine steel wool but I really hate to
have to get into all my corners with it At least it's a sanded finish and
not high polish. What a drag.

--
-Andrea Stone
The Trolls Nest - greenmen, goblins & gargoyle wall art
www.trollsnest.com

"AndreaS" wrote in message
. ..
Hi everyone, I was hoping someone would know what this means. Maybe I just
need to change my pickle; it _is_ getting a little old. I've just never
experienced this particular problem. Usually it just starts looking really
blue and doesn't work as well.

I'm working on a s/s pendant. Mainly it's just a couple bezel settings. So
I've been raising the fine silver, brash brushing it and whatnot. When it
came out of the pickle last time it was nice and white as expected. So I
brushed it, dried it and went to raise the fine silver again. Only this time
when I took it out of the pickle it was tarnished! I'd only heated it until
it took on a yellow tint, as usual, before pickling.

What gives? The tarnish came off with fine steel wool but I really hate to
have to get into all my corners with it At least it's a sanded finish and
not high polish. What a drag.

Just change the pickle and pickle the piece again. This sometimes
happens, not clear why. Silver picks up what I call a "smutty"
deposit from the pickle, especially if left for a while. Re-pickling
in fresh solution will make it go away.

Regards,

Bob

AndreaS wrote:
Hi everyone, I was hoping someone would know what this means. Maybe I just
need to change my pickle; it _is_ getting a little old. I've just never
experienced this particular problem. Usually it just starts looking really
blue and doesn't work as well.

I'm working on a s/s pendant. Mainly it's just a couple bezel settings. So
I've been raising the fine silver, brash brushing it and whatnot. When it
came out of the pickle last time it was nice and white as expected. So I
brushed it, dried it and went to raise the fine silver again. Only this time
when I took it out of the pickle it was tarnished! I'd only heated it until
it took on a yellow tint, as usual, before pickling.

What gives? The tarnish came off with fine steel wool but I really hate to
have to get into all my corners with it At least it's a sanded finish and
not high polish. What a drag.

You didn't perhaps drop a tiny bit of iron into the pickle.
Or maybe you reached in with a pair of steel tweezwers? Left on some
iron bindng wire?

The tarnish would actually be a copper plating. Time to change the pickle.
--
mbstevens http://www.mbstevens.com/

"mbstevens" wrote
snip
You didn't perhaps drop a tiny bit of iron into the pickle.
Or maybe you reached in with a pair of steel tweezwers? Left on some
iron bindng wire?

The tarnish would actually be a copper plating. Time to change the
pickle.


Nope, no steel tweezers or steel wool bits. I try to be very careful about
that. This is definitely grey and just junky and weird. I've seen copper
plating from that before when I was in school. ARG! That was annoying, lemme
tell ya.

I'll change the pickle and try again. Thank you both!

--
-Andrea Stone
The Trolls Nest - greenmen, goblins & gargoyle wall art
www.trollsnest.com