Daguerreotype Plate Preparation and Polishing

Posted in Artist's Journal, Daguerreotypes by Jonathan on the July 6th, 2007

Buffing! I am frequently asked by fellow or budding Daguerreotypists about the minutiae of our craft. Too often, it seems, we are blinded by the allure of the medium to the complications of working with it. Ours is a rewarding and delightful art that can easily be created in a simple backyard workshop or even a bathroom. So I encourage you: fear not, friends! The Daguerreotypist is here to help you.

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is about plate preparation and polishing. I do not know of a one-stop-shop for silver plated copper plates so I am forced to make my own. Here I outline my process.

Polishing Copper (see here for definitions of cutting and polishing actions):

Mount plate to a block of wood using small nails

The wood block should have a smaller piece glued underneath it to act as a handle

Remove big scratches with stitched sisal wheel and black emery compound (cutting action)
Move to stitched muslin wheel with brown (tripoli) compound (first cutting, then polishing action)
Move to stitched muslin wheel with white compound (first cutting, then polishing action)
Move to buffing board or non-stitched muslin wheel with red compound until you have a mirror finish
Wrap your polished plates in soft paper towels for transport / shipping (I use Scott Shop towels made by the ~~Engulf and Devour~~ Kimberly Clark Corporation)

Silver Plating: Have your plater deposit at least a half mil (.0005″, about 12 microns) of silver on your plates. It isn’t unreasonable to ask your plater for an x-ray spot analysis of the silver thickness if the plater is so equipped. My plater, Surtronics in Raleigh, NC, performs an x-ray analysis for me on every plate.

Silver Polishing:

Very quickly, polish the plate on a stitched muslin wheel with red rouge on one direction

Rotate the plate 90 degrees and repeat
Rotate the plate 90 degrees and repeat

Very quickly, polish the plate on an non-stitched muslin wheel with red or blue compound (some people use ZAM here too)
Final polish on a buffing board made from MDF covered in leather or some other kind of shock absorber and then covered in synthetic velvet using dried and powdered red rouge.

Polish in the same direction as the lines that you laid down earlier on the wheels.

Resources:
Copper Plates: Online Metals (Custom-cut 16 Gauge Copper 110 sheet)
Buffs, buffers, compounds, and silver plating supplies if you’re so inclined: Caswell Plating
More exotic compounds and other goodies: Metalliferous and Rio Grande

As always, keep the questions coming.

-Jonathan

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