Should I tumble silver plated jump rings?

by Margaret
(Fort Worth, Texas)

My question is simple, I think? Can silver plated jump rings be tumbled to remove burrs?
Margaret

Stacy's Answer:

Hi Margaret!

There are a lot of factors to consider when tumbling plated items. How thick is the plate? What kind of plating is it and what is it plated over? I am always leery of tumbling plated items. I have discovered some "copper" beads were not copper at all when their copper-ish coating came off in the tumbler! While I love Mykonos Greek metallized ceramic beads, I have had the thin silver coating wear-off in spots revealing a copper under-layer after a few hours in the tumbler. However, the copper metallized beads tumble just fine.

If the coating comes off with a few swipes of fine steel wool applied to it, then I would not take a chance and tumble it. You can always test one or two of the items in question before putting the entire finished piece of jewelry (or batch of freshly cut jump rings) in the tumbler to see how they hold up.