The Gold Specimen Cleaned Up Well. Should I Stop?

[Gerry in Idaho]

Soaked the 22 gram speci in some WINK and boy does it look nice.  I think after it is smashed, sifted and melted, there might be 8 to 10 grams.  The last photo is what it looked like just after I dug it and before cleaning.

[GB_Amateur]

Stop!  Looks fantastic.

[Glenn in CO]

I second that, looks great!  Don't smash it up, it's worth more as a specimen than the value of the gold.

There's got to be more of them out there waiting to be found.

[Steve Herschbach]

Stop! Great looking specimen Gerry....

[IdahoPeg]

Looks real purty to me! ?

[beatup]

looks great the way it is ,be a shame to smash it.

[oneguy]

nice one....!!!!!  leave it alone????

[Lunk]

FTLOG stop Gerry, before those gorgeous quartz crystals crumble into powder!?

[Gerry in Idaho]

You folks know I would never crush it but bow have a seen some videos of collector pieces being smashed, solid nuggets getting chopped and even some sawed into smaller ones.  Davesgold, I soaked it for about an hour in Wink.  

I did drop it though and a few bits fell off.  Guess that is what I get for playing around.  Just love looking at it though.

[GB_Amateur]

On 9/2/2018 at 8:24 PM, davsgold said:

...That Wink must be good stuff, what is in it that is doing the job.  Over here I use "Alibrite" which is an Aluminium cleaner, and has a very low % of HF but it takes weeks to dissolve the Quartz, but only a few days it get a specie looking "clean".

Spelling is actually Whink:  https://www.amazon.com/Whink-Rust-Stain-Remover-Ounce/dp/B003KIQIW8/ref=sr_1_3?gclid=CjwKCAjwvJvpBRAtEiwAjLuRPelEblgXOEi5OhfQDq_SQejrzjwNjfDD2-XCBHaTartH1XoTg-kTVhoCpdAQAvD_BwE&hvadid=241645596943&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9016564&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17298008456077216060&hvtargid=aud-649564993678%3Akwd-1389632425&hydadcr=693_1011790827&keywords=whink&qid=1562864159&s=gateway&sr=8-3&th=1

Here are the Material Safety Data Sheets (msds) for both Alibrite and Whink.  You can read there that Whink has between 1% and 2.3% hydrofluoric acid whereas Alibrite has less than 1%.  This probably explains why Whink works faster at dissolving quartz.

 

SEPTONE ALIBRITE.pdf Whink-Rust-Stain-Remover.pdf