Using 3M bristle discs to polish round shapes

Making a round shape and keeping it round in jewelry is sometimes harder than it looks. When I started out in jewelry-making, I loved making rounded, sinuous, and organic shapes (still do, tbh).

The problem? Traditional methods of cleaning, finishing, and polishing involved files and sandpaper, all of which tended to make more work for me on those rounded shapes.

Files left flat planes on my rounded surface that then had to be, well, filed off. I really needed something better suited to rounded surfaces.

How well do the 3M bristle discs work?

One of my first metalsmithing instructors handed me a small mandrel with a bunch of these spiral thingies on them (that was what I knew to call them at the time – spiral thingies). They were handed to me with not much instruction, but I quickly found out that they were the solution to my problem.

Successive grits of these bristle discs made quick work of polishing and finishing and maintained the overall shape of the jewelry I was making. I was making very round, spherical shapes with more organic textures and I wanted to maintain the smooth round shapes.

The 3M Bristle discs were the perfect tools to polish all of these. You can even see that I used some to keep a matte finish while using other grits to highly polish other parts. Same tool, different grits, and these became so much easier to make!

Here is the latest Tool Talk video showing how I use the bristle discs to polish around flush set stones.