Jump to content

The Wonders Of A Acid Clean


Recommended Posts


4 hours ago, Swegin said:

Very nice.  How long did you soak the pieces?

 

Hey Swegin.   Like I said mate, to get to this type of transformation takes several months. I drop them in acid and then forget about them,     And another thing, once they have been dropped in acid you can`t un drop them. Years ago I ruined the look of several pieces because I acid cleaned them. I`ve got some pieces that will never go in acid. cheers Dave

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

The result you got is very good. However, muriatic acid with a 31% or is it 41% hydrochloric  acid will do a better job in a week's time. You need to change out the acid halfway thru the cleaning period.  I have an article in March of 2017 ICMJ mining journal  titled "Sampling  Cleaning and Hydro-Shocking quartz gold specimens." If anyone has questions, ask away.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, goldseeker4000 said:

...muriatic acid with a 31% or is it 41% hydrochloric acid...?

From Wikipedia's hydrochloric acid entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid):

Higher concentrations up to just over 40% are chemically possible, but the evaporation rate is then so high that storage and handling require extra precautions, such as pressurization and cooling. Bulk industrial-grade is therefore 30% to 35%, optimized to balance transport efficiency and product loss through evaporation. In the United States, solutions of between 20% and 32% are sold as muriatic acid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gb_amateur, as you can see from the photograph of my jug of muriatic acid it says right below the word muriatic  45% hydrochloric acid.

20180417_203801.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been using this jug of acid for 3 years now and to this day when I take the cap off, Smokey fumes will rise out of the jug. It is some very potent  acid for cleaning gold and quartz. I use to use a mixture of Hydrofloric and phosphoric acid to completely eat away the quartz and as soon as specimen was put in the acid the quartz started dissolving. I got rid of this particular acid after I had a very close call when my hand jerked to the side  and it splashed out of the container. The acid was running down the chemical glove and came about an inch or two from dripping onto my arm. That was enough to scare the Hell out of me, so I just stick to the acid in the picture.If I want to get rid of the quartz then I hydro - shock it. I heat  the specimen up till the quartz is glowing orange. Then drop it in cold water. Repeat the process til you get it the way you like it. After that I will give it the acid bath. If you have it in acid for 1 week then you need to neutralize it in a strong solution of baking soda water for triple the time it was in acid. If you dont it won't  effectively neutralize the acid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...