| Hi knotty,
I got the reamer at the local craft store. i don't think that I'm reaming that much. Some of the pearls fit fine on the 22 gauge wire, some needed to have slightly bigger holes, so that they would move around freely, which is what I like. Also, I just figured out that you're supposed to use the reamer with water (I don't know how I missed this!) The ones I used water with have less black stuff coming out.
I'm starting to think it's not from the reamer, too. On one of my pearls, I didn't use the reamer, but I twisted a piece of the 14K wire in it, and a dark gray dust came out. When I look at the hole to begin with, it looks white. It's really confusing. If it is bead-nuked, why would they use a dark colored bead? It looks like I'm going to have to smash a pearl. I chose freshwater pearls because, being nearly all nacre, I knew that they would last a long time. I'm not going through all this trouble to make something that's going to wear out in a few years.
Nicole |