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Gold Cleaning Methods Needed


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To bring out luster from gold treated with acid, we use what the Old Timers used and that is salt and vinegar, put In a jar or container and shake gently, then rinse with water, if shiny enough use, just plain old liquid Dawn dish soap and rinse.....Good cleaning..

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Hey el dorado,

figured it out I will put the gold in the jar with salt , vinegar and put it on the floor of

my peterbilt for a couple 12 hr. Shifts, ultrasonic vibes here guaranteed!

,

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I was talking to a friend (Wes D.) the other day and he was telling me a very well known specimen mineral dealer whom several of my friends have sold gold to no longer uses HF to clean or alter specimens because of the unnatural "frost" it gives to the quartz (HF eats up quartz, but not gold).  The guy now uses only dremmel tools and removes the quartz by hand.

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Thanks I have a dremmel , probobly have to be pretty careful I would guess, I have just the

piece to experiment with. Might have to invest in some good quality bits to be precise lm guessing.

Thanks chris.

El dorado havent tried the truck ride yet, gonna try it when we get back offroad bellydumping

when the ground thaws, lots of vibrating bet it will clean gold right up.

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The salt and vinegar mixture works extra well if some small gold flakes are added to the solution, enough to polish the specimen. I use it to shine up dull nuggets.  About 1/4 oz of small gold for a 1 dwt up to 1oz. nugget or so. It also shines up the flakes.

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It won't take that much, be careful if your gold is delicate.

When Van the Gold man was still around, I did exactly that on a few specie he wanted more crystal gold on them to show. I did it under a microscope and it took forever. Most of the quartz was removed with dental picks. His buyer did not want the frosted quartz that HF acid leaves.

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Hi guys! Nice forum Steve!   I just want to add to what I mentioned to Chris.  I think that they  still use HF on certain specimen types, but the prefered method is now  mechanical vibrating tools with carbide tips, to break the brittle quartz free. Similar to how fosslis are prepared.

If the acid etching is used, they carefully prepare it with something like wax to cover parts they dont want altered. That keeps the remaining quartz natural looking, and not the dreaded white chalk look.

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