Oh, forgot the add that once you use this acid for eating away the quartz on a specimen, either the full strength acid or the Whink you will need to use baking soda mixed with water to neutralize the acid to stop it progression on the quartz.
No Bill, it's not hard to do, it done by simply soaking the specimen in hydrofluoric acid, but it can be very hazardous because of the nature of hydrofluoric acid, it's very dangerous if not handled correctly and with many safety precautions, you don't want to get hydrofluoric acid on your skin, eyes etc., or inhale the flumes, if you get it on your skin it usually doesn't affect the skin that much but it will penetrate the skin, muscle and makes its way down to the bone and destroy the bones and it usually in ends death, same with breathing in the flumes and it doesn't take but a very little bit of the acid getting on your skin because it keeps going after the bone and is hard to stop the progression of the acid once it gets to the bone, even flushing your skin immediately may not help.
My advice is to not mess with this acid unless you have at least a mini lab and know what you're doing.
That being said you can still get similar results albeit much slower to achieve with a rust and stain remover that contains a very low percentage of hydrofluoric acid, the product is called Whink Rust Stain Remover, and can be purchased at your local grocery store/Wal-mart/drug store, etc., I would still use all safety precautions such as rubber gloves, eye protection and lots of ventilation.
Also use plastic containers as the acid will eat glass just as it does the quartz.
You can tell by the chalky look of the quartz that the piece has been treated with hydrofluoric acid to expose the gold, the piece had the gold encased in quartz before the treatment.
Sure looks like the gold that was coming out of the Alleghaney Mining district in northern California. A notable mine is the Original 16 to 1 mine. http://www.origsix.com/catalog2.asp?catid=28 , this is a link to there site and some views of there samples. But like Astro says would be great to know the real story.
One of my customers brought it in for me to see at the shop. He said he got it out of California from a friend of his. Wanted to know what kind of value could be put on it. Beautiful piece. That's about all the info that I have.
Comments
Thanks Gold Seeker, I think I'll stay away from that much use of it.
Also some more info on this acid, PLEASE if anyone is thinking about using this acid, PLEASE be careful!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid
Oh, forgot the add that once you use this acid for eating away the quartz on a specimen, either the full strength acid or the Whink you will need to use baking soda mixed with water to neutralize the acid to stop it progression on the quartz.
No Bill, it's not hard to do, it done by simply soaking the specimen in hydrofluoric acid, but it can be very hazardous because of the nature of hydrofluoric acid, it's very dangerous if not handled correctly and with many safety precautions, you don't want to get hydrofluoric acid on your skin, eyes etc., or inhale the flumes, if you get it on your skin it usually doesn't affect the skin that much but it will penetrate the skin, muscle and makes its way down to the bone and destroy the bones and it usually in ends death, same with breathing in the flumes and it doesn't take but a very little bit of the acid getting on your skin because it keeps going after the bone and is hard to stop the progression of the acid once it gets to the bone, even flushing your skin immediately may not help.
My advice is to not mess with this acid unless you have at least a mini lab and know what you're doing.
That being said you can still get similar results albeit much slower to achieve with a rust and stain remover that contains a very low percentage of hydrofluoric acid, the product is called Whink Rust Stain Remover, and can be purchased at your local grocery store/Wal-mart/drug store, etc., I would still use all safety precautions such as rubber gloves, eye protection and lots of ventilation.
Also use plastic containers as the acid will eat glass just as it does the quartz.
A link to the manufacturer's website.
http://www.whink.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cEcommerce.Product&Pr...
A link to the MSDS info fopr this product.
http://www.whink.com/cmssites/ws0811www.whink.com/uploads/Documents...
would that be hard to do?
You can tell by the chalky look of the quartz that the piece has been treated with hydrofluoric acid to expose the gold, the piece had the gold encased in quartz before the treatment.
Sure looks like the gold that was coming out of the Alleghaney Mining district in northern California. A notable mine is the Original 16 to 1 mine. http://www.origsix.com/catalog2.asp?catid=28 , this is a link to there site and some views of there samples. But like Astro says would be great to know the real story.
One of my customers brought it in for me to see at the shop. He said he got it out of California from a friend of his. Wanted to know what kind of value could be put on it. Beautiful piece. That's about all the info that I have.
Nice looking but whats the story? Would love to hear some back story on a piece like that.
Someone bring them in?