Ask the Experts Polishing Jewelry Q&A

What are the pros and cons of using a jewelry tumbler for polishing jewelry as opposed to a hand held rotary tool?

- Susan

Both tools are very helpful in different ways. The biggest advantage to using a jewelry tumbler is you can tumble numerous items at one time and walk away while the tumbler does the work for you. This is very time effective when you want entire pieces tumbled/polished.

There are times you may only wish to spot polish, such as with bronze or copper metal clay. Spot polishing allows you to polish small specific areas of your jewelry piece to bring out the highlights. This effect gives you more variations in your color layers. You may wish to patina a very detailed piece of jewelry and spot polish the top layers, leaving a dark patina in the deep crevices.

The rotary polishing set also has many different accessories and types of burrs and polishing discs made specifically for a wide variety of surfaces and tasks.

- Kristal Wick, Designer, Author and Jewelry-Making Expert