Finishing The Holes On Lentil Beads

[kellyp82]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question about lentil beads. I like my lentil beads round without the dents where the holes are but at times some of the edges are a little rough. I have read where someone else said that they grind off the sharp edges. Is this okay to do when you are selling the beads on ebay?

I have a dremmel tool that I use to clean up the holes a bit but it leaves the glass around the hole dull, not shinny like the rest of the bead. Is there a way to make it shiny again? Would this be something you would put in your listing, that the holes were finished off for smoothness?

Thanks for all your help, Kelly

[Emily]

I don't sell on eBay, so I can't comment on your question about listings.

A quick fix for the dullness is clear nail polish or Future floor "wax" (actually acrylic), but that will wear off.

You can polish the ground places with jeweler's polishing compounds on a felt buff (a bullet-shaped one works) in your Dremel. I've used white diamond followed by red rouge.

Don't ask me what "white diamond" and "red rouge" are actually made of. They're compounds that jewelers use to polish metal. Rouge is a finishing compound -- the last step, basically. White diamond is coarser, so you use it as an earlier step in the process. It's similar to a compound called tripoli, and don't ask me what that's made of, either. They're sold in bricks, and you apply them by getting your polishing buff going and spinning it on the brick so some of the compound adheres to the buff, then polishing your piece. Use a separate buff for each compound, and wash your piece in between so that you get the coarser grit off before you try to use the finer compound.

These will make the ground areas less rough and less conspicuous, but won't get them the whole way back to glassiness. If that were really important to you, I suppose you could heat the beads back up in your kiln and carefully introduce the ground places to the flame to fire polish them -- but that would be a tricky process, and I'd question whether it would be worth the risk and the effort.

[SadiesJewels]

I personally wouldn't sell a bead on ebay where I had ground the edges. Some how I try to get my ebay beads absolutely perfect ... my slightly less than perfect - for instance a slightly ground edge (and sometimes beads with more character imho) might get made into jewelry if the imperfection does not detract from the work. It's one of the problems I have with lentils - I don't think I've made one where the hole is perfect (to me) and now I think of it I haven't sold any lentils on ebay - but I have a very low ebay submission rate anyway!

But ... as the thread on seams reads, everyone has different standards and views of perfecton!

Sadie

[sassy]

I purchase lots of beads on ebay for my jewelry designs. If I purchased beads and the ends were rough, dull or ground off. I would not be a happy buyer and would never buy again from that seller.