I was thinking a rock polisher might work. I have a bunch of hooks and nuts from a 30's Tenor Banjo myself I need to polish and was thinking it might work well.

(<=I==)======'==< : : }

I have done some poking around and tumblers are often referenced to be sure. They seem to be good at removing rust and tarnish, but don't necessarily get the parts all the way to polished. I am usually working with new raw brass parts, so not much tarnish to remove, just the polishing.

Bulldog vibration tumbler. Uses crushed walnut shells, add a drop of flitz, Voila!

Vibratory finishing is a common method of polishing small parts. There should be a good number of job shops in the Houston area that provide that service.

I use a "rock polisher" all the time with ceramic pieces for the tough rust/ect & ground up corn cobs for the finish or on nickel plated parts. There are other polishing stuff to use also.
Hooks are steel & if rusty , the ceramic doesn't get all the rust off so a wire brush wheel on a motor will.

Tom

The cheapest easiest thing to buy is a vibratory empty cartridge polisher (with crushed walnut shells) at any mass sporting goods store. Inexpensive plastic bowl, small motor (it hums mostly). About as big as a bowl in the kitchen for bread dough. The one I bought was under $50 I think. Sporting store also sells crushed walnut shell refill bags.

People who reload their own ammunition use these to clean the dirt/smoke off the spent brass cartridges before they reload them.

I've used the same tumbler that I polish cartridge cases with. Like Dick mentioned, I bought mine at Sportsman's Warehouse for $50. I use corn cob media but, after seeing the suggestions on here, I think I'll invest in a bag of walnut shell media, just to see if there's any difference.

Thanks for all the responses. A vibrational tumbler seems like a good option and relatively cheap. I'll check it out!

quote:

---

Originally posted by dpgetman

I have done some poking around and tumblers are often referenced to be sure. They seem to be good at removing rust and tarnish, but don't necessarily get the parts all the way to polished. I am usually working with new raw brass parts, so not much tarnish to remove, just the polishing.

---

If the parts don't get polished to the point you like them, try the corn cob media. I've used that to polish nickel parts and it did fine. The walnut shell media might be a little coarser.