silver polishing problem

[George]

This is actually a two part question.  The first thing that I will mention is that I used 'silver black' on a sterling silver pendant.  What I want to do now is to remove the silver black from the high places on the pendant which will leave the silver black in the grooves.  Antiquing is what they call it I think.  My problem is that I don't have a buffing wheel and buffer like they had in class when I was shown the process of removing the silver black by applying first tripoli and then rouge.  Is there a hand method that I can use to apply the tripoli and rouge?  Or is there someother method and/or materials that can work to remove the 'silver black' from the high spots?  

Going along with this first question I want to shine the pendant to get it real shiny(as shiny as possible) but again, I have no buffing machine so can get a high speed wheel going with the rouge or whatever you would recommend.  And again, is there a hand method to get the silver real shiny?  Thanks for any help.

[Metalman]

George,
The answer for both your questions is basically the same. You ought to be able to get a number of finer grit wet/dry silicon carbide type sand papers. You will need from around 400grit up to 1500 or higher.  The higher you go [2500 grit] the finer your final polish. As you work through the sanding grits, getting finer and finer, you have to make sure, absolutely sure that there are no residual sanding scratches or marks before you go to the finer grit. You also need to work clean so you don't pollute your finer grit materials with coarser grits [all it takes is one bit of coarse grit to ruin a polishing job]  Once you have sanded up [or down] to that 1500 grit [or higher] then you can do your finish polish.
3 ways:

1] Buy one of the 'Brilliant' polishing clothes R&T cat.# 63-537 - I use these all the time. A good hard hand rub on a well sanded piece gives a great hand rubbed look
2] You can get some good polishing compounds, I use a couple from Germany, one is called Wenol and the other is Simichrome - both will work well especially on ACS pieces [you might find some comparable at a good automotive supply house, we used to use Simichrome to do the chrome trim on my mom's 1953 MG-TD = looked great]
3] You go ahead and but the polishing compounds you used at in your class, and you take a good soft rag - I prefer old flannel and you rub it down well with the compound and make your own polishing cloth - this actually works quite well.

Hope this all helps

Once you have a polishing cloth of some type, you should be able to get the Silver Black off just fine and finish out your pieces.