Comments on: Can German Silver (AKA Nickel Silver) Be Tumbled?

By: Donna Geurin

Donna Geurin — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:04:57 +0000

I have used the german wire for years and have tumbled it. I have not ever had a problem and it comes out polished, bright, beautiful and hardened. Never has come out darkened or grayish. I am extremely careful with my tumbler. Always clean and spread it out to dry. That is just my personal experience.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 20:41:53 +0000

I have found that tumbling German silver comes out darker than sterling silver. A more grayish finish.

By: Pegi Ione

Pegi Ione — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:45:32 +0000

Thanks Drake! Can’t wait to try it now. Thanks for the tip on using different shot-don’t know if that would have occurred to me.

By: Drake

Drake — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 17:40:17 +0000

German Silver is just a white version of Brass. It does not have a coating that can wear off like enameled copper or anodized aluminum. Tumbling german silver should be perfectly fine. I have heard that it can take a lot longer for the nickel-silver (german silver) to clean up though. However, if you also work with regular silver, you may want to take the precaution of always using different barrels and shot with your silver vs your copper-based alloys. The real question of whether a finished piece is safe to tumble will be based on the stones that you are using. Anything with a moh’s hardness of 7 or above (think quartz, agate, jasper) should be perfectly safe to tumble with steel shot. Anything below that gets a bit questionable. I definitely would not tumble anything with Malachite, Lapis, pearl, or Mother of Pearl. The results would not please you.