I have a german silver radiator upper tank that I would like to polish. It came with very fine scratches and before I make it worse, maybe you might tell me what to do. I have 1200 to 4000 paper and foam disks available. Thanks in advance. Fourdy
Sodbuster If the scratches are fine You should be able to just polish them out without sanding. I have polished out some pretty deep scratches in aluminum with My homemade polisher. FEDER
German silver is pretty soft, it's an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc, sometimes lead or antimony is in there too. I would be inclined where possible to polish it out by hand, but don't use acidic or alkaline polishes as EVERYTHING eats zinc! Especially sodium hydroxide, ammonia, and ammonia biflouride, they are bad news for german silver. It was quite popular in the thirties, I've seen it used in ornaments, chain mail (for horses) and on cars. If a good hand polish isn't coarse enough to take out the scratches, buff it lightly with plain unsewn canvas or muslin and a really fine chrome oxide, or nice synthetic compound. If you have a problem give me a call or drop me an email direct.
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