Killed a silver ring with #6 polishing rouge

[Bear stalker]

I thought I'd surprise my wife by polishing her silver ring she found last week. It was the classic black/purple color when she found it. She actually thought it was just some junk keychain ring or something and just tossed it in her bag. She didn't know that silver turned black when in saltwater for a long time.
I first tried the baking soda paste thing and it improved it nicely but still dull and not silver.
So super Dave to the rescue! I took it down to my shop and put some #6 rouge on my buffing wheel and polished the snot out of it.
It turned out fantastic with a mirror like sheen! But then I noticed I removed all the little bead details around the stones.
Thankfully we have a very comfortable couch.

How do you polish silver to bring it back to that high sheen without destroying it?

 

[VirginiaBikeGirl]

Sucks. I have yet to hunt saltwater. But I've over cleaned plenty of stuff.

 

[bottlecap4u]

A year ago, found an old silver ring with turquoise stones. My girl wanted it so had it resized and the jeweler polished it up for me, looks great now. Might want to try a jeweler next time.

 

[VirginiaBikeGirl]

Cleaned up well. I don't think there's much more to know about it. I do need to go give the area a deeper search.

 

[Ken Clad]

How do you polish silver to bring it back to that high sheen without destroying it?

Ugh… that sucks. Non whitening toothpaste or commercial silver polishing products. Use a toothbrush with "soft" or "medium" bristles. Slow n steady wins this race.

 

[Bear stalker]

Yep, next time I'll skip the buffing wheel and rouge and go with a gentler process.
She actually just laughed a little at my stupidity. Which I'm use to.

Next up... Our clad coins! Which will be going in the tumbler.
With my luck there will probably be a 1916D Merc in the mix that I didn't see.

 

[Bear stalker]

Cleaned up well. I don't think there's much more to know about it. I do need to go give the area a deeper search.

That's a cool find. Any idea what it is? It kinda looks like it was silver plated. What's the back side look like?

 

[VirginiaBikeGirl]

Cleaned up well. I don't think there's much more to know about it. I do need to go give the area a deeper search.

apologies, posted in the wrong thread

 

[Jelly_936]

 

[hoser]

The use of a polishing cloth and tooth paste is what I use. Silver is way too soft for rouge IMO. Still a very nice find.

 

[Bear stalker]

The use of a polishing cloth and tooth paste is what I use. Silver is way too soft for rouge IMO. Still a very nice find.

I definitely learned my lesson on this one. I'll only be using your method on any future finds.