How I make my handpoured Jaguar shiny

Hello all! I wanted to give you a glimpse of how I finish the Jaguar. The Jaguar requires more finish work than most pieces I pour because the mold I use is a brooch that doesn’t have a flat back and it has many curves and I like this guy to be shiny. I will also be tracking the silver lost during the finishing process. Below is a picture of it finished and ready to go to a customer.

We will start with the before pictures of the front and the back. The beginning weight is 3.65ozt

My first step is grinding down the sprue nub, which was where I poured into the sand mold I made. The sprue is longer and cylinder shaped at the top but that gets cut off right away and it goes back into the melt pile. The Dremel with the metal grinding disc is what I will be using for this job. I will also use this remove the flashing you saw on the side and on the tail. The weight after this step is 3.61ozt

Next I will work on smoothing the back a bit. Right now it would be too textured to be able to stamp it properly. I won’t be sanding it completely smooth but it will look better. The weight is 3.58ozt after sanding.

Now it’s time to get that Dremel back out. With this piece I always get spots where it cooled too quickly or something and it leaves areas on the body that are not smooth. I will use various Dremel bits to get a smoother finish. The weight after smoothing the body is 3.55ozt

Now it’s time to hand sand it. I use 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 grit. It would be shiny if I just put it into the tumbler but I want it even shinier so I hand sand it. The weight is still 3.55ozt after hand sanding.

Final step is putting it into the tumbler. Done! The final weight is 3.55ozt . The total amount of silver lost was .1 ozt not bad. Less than $2.00 in silver, I think it’s worth it.

Pictures of the front and back.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great evening.