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Gold From Last Hunt And Question About Soaking Specimens In Wink


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Hello Chris,

Whink has a very low concentration of hydrofluoric acid (around 2%) and it will take long time for it to dissolve the quartz. Changing out every week may seem some improvement on dissolving the quartz, but again it will take months for any significant amount of quartz to be dissolved. Hydrofluroric Acid in a higher concentration (40%+) form will dissolve the quartz very quickly, but is a very hazardous acid to use and handle unless using proper protective equipment and ventilation. Regardless if you are using Whink or stronger form of hydrofluoric acid be sure to soak it in baking soda to neutralize the acid. The more porous the specimen the longer it needs to be soak in a solution of baking soda.

Nice looking specimens! Very nice character!

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 Good looking rough gold!!

If you have a big pc of quartz to remove you may want to physically remove some. Some people use a big torch and a bucket of cold water to remove material, shock it off. Danger either way so be very careful.

Best of luck getting more gold and cleaning up what you have.

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I wouldn't do anything to those pieces except maybe clean them in a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. 

If you can't dissolve the quartz completely, the quartz that is left no longer looks natural and distracts from the specimen.

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6 minutes ago, LipCa said:

I wouldn't do anything to those pieces except maybe clean them in a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. 

If you can't dissolve the quartz completely, the quartz that is left no longer looks natural and distracts from the specimen.

Those are not the pieces, I just soaked in clr for a bit. This big quartz is the one I'm soaking in Whink. There are many spots of gold in the quartz, mostly small, But I think there is not enough gold to keep as a specimen. I may just crush it.  Thank you for advice. 

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Chris, 

Yes you will get better results if you refresh the Whink periodically. It seems to lose potency after a relatively short while. Even every few days will speed up the process a lot. Also if you carefully pick at it with something sharp, (tweezers) you can chip off the softened quartz and expose more of the harder quartz underneath that still needs to soak.

I can see why you would use it on that larger piece since it doesn't have a lot going for it visually. I have the same thought as LipCa, I only use it on pieces when I want the quartz completely gone. If it doesn't get removed completely then the quartz looks chalky and it really detracts from a natural specimen IMO. 

Nice gold you keep finding! 

Matt

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Very nice specimen finds and thanks for sharing.

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