Since all wire is drawn by sucessive passes through very hard diamond dies, all wire has similar metalurgical properties from that process. To a great extent this is a sort of polishing - and in fact wire that has just been drawn is very bright and smooth.
After it sits about for a while it tends to oxidize. It can also oxidize as the result of heat required to melt the insulation (assuming insulated wire) which the wire is drawn into and through...
but for bare wire, yes, you could polish it with rouge or any one of a number of other common polishing compounds. Assuming they do not have any acidic or alkaline component left behind, the long term effect should be minimal due to polishing. Most "metal cleaners" have some sort of chemical component which if left behind will cause corrosion eventually.
Will polishing solid core silver wire make any sonic difference? Gee, it shouldn't, but who knows? It certainly shouldn't hurt - however you could make a very good case for polishing pure silver wire and then immediately putting it into a pure oxygen environment so that you get a uniform silver oxide coating, and no silver sulfates/ides (which one is it?) on the surface. This should yield the most stable wire - assuming that there would be a change if the wire became blackened... (the oxide being silver colored, I'm told).
At least it will look pretty. :- )
_-_-bear
After it sits about for a while it tends to oxidize. It can also oxidize as the result of heat required to melt the insulation (assuming insulated wire) which the wire is drawn into and through...
but for bare wire, yes, you could polish it with rouge or any one of a number of other common polishing compounds. Assuming they do not have any acidic or alkaline component left behind, the long term effect should be minimal due to polishing. Most "metal cleaners" have some sort of chemical component which if left behind will cause corrosion eventually.
Will polishing solid core silver wire make any sonic difference? Gee, it shouldn't, but who knows? It certainly shouldn't hurt - however you could make a very good case for polishing pure silver wire and then immediately putting it into a pure oxygen environment so that you get a uniform silver oxide coating, and no silver sulfates/ides (which one is it?) on the surface. This should yield the most stable wire - assuming that there would be a change if the wire became blackened... (the oxide being silver colored, I'm told).
At least it will look pretty. :- )
_-_-bear