Highly Polished wire????

Couple of thoughts
Trelja I think that the ones that normally claim so much digits are not versed in significant figures and over use their calculators.....
Seems that sometimes a certain methodology is discussed here this goes to extents where sometimes it looses contact with reality an example here you can get polishing materials that they reduce their "grit" as you use them like polishing paste so you end up with way better finish than the original range might have suggested.
As for sanding paper, I think it´s pretty much widely known that 180 grit provides way lesser a finish than say 400 or 600. Well if you do your homework you can find in automotive refinish supply stores grit 1000 or even 1200 if interested and get a better finish yet or you can go the polishing paste route as well.
And if polishing is such an imperfect process not worth doing just imagine how they can get the polished mirrors for telescopes that provide so interesting images of far distant objects, doesn´t that ring a bell?
Regards

Good points, Sol322

I worked with one of the world leading companies that produced semi conducters for capacitors. I personally worked on and ran the vacuume chamber, computer system, and electron beams that cast the metal and removed the impurites.

It used four electron beams that would melt the metal. This was done at such a high tempature that it would vaporize all the impurities and then the vacuume chamber would pull them away while they were in gas form.

The vacuume chamber and electron beams alone were a 60 million dollar set up. That doesnt include the room full of tranformers, the targeting system in which to control the electron beams, or the all the other equipment that filled the room to support this system. I was told that we had one of the most advanced systems in the world.

Our purity didnt get close to what is claimed above. You have to understand that they system used to remove the impurities also, in a small degree, adds other into it. If we melted to quickly you would get an excess build up of oxygen and carbon and could never fully remove them from the metal.

I would be very interested to know what casting process is used to make the silver for silver wire.

As far as sanding goes there are a few things to take into consideration when determining roughness. The grit is how many particles per square inch but theres more to it then that. The backing is just as important. A cloth backing is much rougher then a paper backing. It also depends on the shape of the particle and what the particle is made out of.

For something as soft as silver I would recommend steel wool over sand paper. Maybe a very fine steel wool. Dont let the name fool you a very fine steel wool is finer then most sandpaper.

One thing that you have to understand about sanding is that everything is an abrasive. Even a soft piece of polyester its just the degree in which it does it.

Acetone as mentioned above is also a fantastic suggestion and I would think in most cases better then sandpaper.

I don't want to mention names, but discussed "polishing" as well as "coating" some time ago with a manufacturer. He feels that it is a valid point and suggested that I try it with some of the DIY stuff I was playing around with @ the time. Except for low budget applications they have all of their wire produced for them to spec and do not repackage standard wire/cable as far as I know. I am lazy and never tried it. Maybe he will pipe in if he sees this thread? I don't feel comfortable going into the details of our discussions as I suspect that much of the info supplied was a part of their manufacturing process (really weird stuff that I would have never dreamed of - and I do have odd ideas). I have also misplaced my notes and would probably get it all wrong from memory - so don't ask. Anyway, if I were to attempt "home brew" polishing I think that I would pack a soft pastry cone with Talc and then draw the wire through it while supplying gentle preasure to the outside of the cone (this is my own idea, I think). The trick would be to not distort the wire and a gentle process would be in order.