Sterling turns black!

by Kandi Morley
(Cedar Park, TX)

I tumble my sterling jewelry with mixed stainless steel shot and it turns it black! It's driving my insane. I even exchanged the rubber housing (The Chicago one from Harbor Freight) and it worked ok for a few times and then back to black! (I've used a friends old tumber which is the identical model as mine and it works perfect) I empty the solution and replace, rinse the shot and use Dawn liquid soap.

HELP!!! :)

Stacy's Answer:

Hi Kandi!

Sounds like the rubber barrel may be leaching a chemical into the tumbling solution, turning everything black. This only seems to be a problem with the HF models as the rubber quality is inconsistent....some of their barrels are fine. Are you rinsing everything after each use? The water must be changed after each use and sometimes during the tumbling if the items are really oxidized like when you add a liver-of-sulfur patina to them.

Your shot is probably dirty now too as "gunk" can get built up on it as it appears to have in your photo. Before adding any more jewelry items, you'll want to clean your shot. I use a Burnishing compound for this, Rio Grande's Item Number: 339394 and Rio Grande also carries a stainless steel shot cleaner, Item Number: 339316. Make sure you rinse the barrel and the shot throughly before adding any jewelry. The burnishing compound will do an amazing job on bright metal, but leaves items that you've added a patina to, such as liver-of-sulfur splothy if it doesn't remove the patina completely.

If you're still having issues after you clean your shot and barrel, then I would recommend investing in a Lortone tumbler. The 3A model is the same size as the HF one. The 4C allows you to tumble pieces that are a bit larger. Please note that it also requires more stainless steel shot.

Comments for Sterling turns black!

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Aug 31, 2011

give up!
by: Kandi

Thank you so much for your ideas. I did buy those two items from Rio to try but, decided that I have already spent WAY too much of my time on this silly $40 HF tumbler. I went online and bought the one you suggested! Whew! Now I can move on with my life. :)

Nov 03, 2011

Black sterling silver in tumbler
by: Lise

This happens when there is ONE tiny little piece of junk metal in between the silver. A piece of wire, a springring, a finding or anything from bronze or copper is enough....

If you want the silver to be REAL white again, you need to heat it with a torch and pickle it, or cook it in a strong water/ammonia soution. TRY FIRST!!!!

Identify the tiny little crap piece, wash evrything very through in dishwashing soap....tumble the shot over first over night with polishing soap an try to put ONLY one piece of real silver into the drum.

Good luck, but thats the bad spirit of silversmithings thankyou for not using real silver....

Apr 11, 2014

It's dirt and grease!
by: Lisa W.

I'm putting my hard-won answer to this one out there in case it can help anyone else. The black/gray stuff all over your shot and silver is fine particles of dirt and grease that build up in a tumbler over time. The short answer to avoiding it is to keep your tumbler scrupulously clean, dump it and rinse/wash well after every tumble. I have found that a dribble of Rio Grande's Sunsheen Burnishing Compound is worth its weight in gold (or at least silver). I see a big difference between this product and the Dawn dish washing liquid that was always recommended to me. This stuff keeps all the crud (oxides, etc) in suspension in the liquid as long as the tumbler is in operation. It won't settle on your silver or on your shot. If you shut the tumbler and let everything sit, the crud will settle on the barrel and contents. Dump the shot, liquid, and jewelry after each use, into a strainer and rinse well, and you will not be likely to see this problem again.
To clean your silver and shot once it's cruddy:
1) Rio's Sunsheen Steel Shot Cleaner works well, less than a teaspoon in a little barrel, tumble for a few hours, dump/rinse immediately upon stopping the tumbler.
2)Sink cleanser (comet, ajax, etc) - sprinkle in the barrel with a small amount of water, tumble 10 min, dump, rinse, repeat until clean. This has never damaged my steel shot, and I've done it a lot (before I got the Rio products, haven't needed to since). This may give your silver a pumice finish, but it will clean it without damage, and it can be repolished.
Good luck!

Apr 11, 2014

resolution
by: Kandi Morley

Ok, My very nice tumbler from Riogrande started giving me problems (due to my not maintaining it's health.) I borrowed my friends HF tumbler that had always worked in the past and it was SOOOOO smooth and quiet and nice. I decided to take a chance on buying another HF tumbler and this one works perfect!!! I am inclined to believe it was the rubber barrel leaching chemicals into the solution. But, this new one works perfect like my friends.

May 13, 2015

Cleaning
by: Elizabeth Hay

I had this same problem with both my Lortone tumblers. I first cleaned the shot with Coke, full strength, until my Shot Cleaner and Burnishing powder mentioned above from Rio arrived. Now I tumble with a little of both the SC and BP, and store the shot in this mixture. Works great!

Also, if you are using Black Max to patina, the mixture potency craps out after about a year giving your pieces with patina a pink tone in places, only seen after tumbling. If you experience this, time to get a new bottle of toner!

With both instances, I had to torch all pieces until clean, pickle, and repatina. With pieces with stones, I soaked in Coke first, then scrubbed with brass wool.
HTH,
Elizabeth

May 13, 2015