Prospectors And Christmas Ornaments

[Glenn in CO]

14 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

Glenn,  Please PM me your address so I can send a Minelab hat.

I have found some very nice gold n my years, but your treasures are museum quality. 

I especially like the before and after pics and would love for you to start a post and educate us on your preferred methods of turning specimens into picasso's.  Well done my friend.

Thanks everyone for sharing some golden ornaments, there were some really nice finds and yes even the little sparkler ornaments are precious.

Gerry,

Thanks for the Minelab hat and the compliment on the gold I've found, but everyone who has submitted photos of their gold specimens on this thread or other posts can be just as proud. Big or small every gold specimen that someone has detected, sluiced or gotten somehow in my mind is unique and one of kind. The fact it is gold and you put in the time and effort is probably the greatest achievement, but the adventure and memories will last forever.

I do have some gold specimens that I need to clean and prepare and will pick one and will take anyone who is interested through the whole process. Hopefully that can be a starting point using one or more techniques. Please keep in mind that every gold specimen that I and my wife have found will or has been cleaned and prepared differently or some variation of prepping that was used on other gold specimens. There are to many variables with acids, chemicals and techniques to cover and to have someone try and use for any type of gold specimens and have success. Also keep in mind that specimens can take hours, a few days and sometimes months to achieve the results one is looking for. I've been doing cleaning and prep for over thirty years and I'm still learning.

[Glenn in CO]

10 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Great photos, Glenn.  But you've piqued my interest regarding the 'disasters'.  Any photos of those, or at least a description of what you've had go wrong?

Hello GB,

Well that's an interesting question about photographing my disasters, but I normally say to myself "don't do that again and make the same dumb "@&*!?" mistake!" and try to move on and forget about it. The "disaster" is usually caused by leaving the gold specimen in the acid or chemical I'm using at that time for to long of a period of time or using another cleaning technique to aggressively. The wiregold specimens are a real challenge, especially when you try to completely remove the host rock. Sometimes it's better to leave some host rock to hold the wiregold specimen together. Usually with the the wiregold specimens you have some collateral damage and that ends up going into a glass vial.

Here is before and after photos of a wiregold specimen. The specimen before being cleaned was one piece, but now is in two pieces. This specimen I didn't have a whole lot to work with:

 

[geof_junk]

It is nearly a year ago, but what a great specimen and find.