Hi everyone. I have been lurking on this forum for quite some time now and would like to thank the members and moderators here for such a great resource and wealth of information!
I am a second generation jeweler, who was fortunate enough to have a very intelligent father teach me the trade.
Back in the 80's, when I came into the business, my father was unsatisfied with the results that most refiners were giving on returns. He purchased Hoke's book as well as a couple of others and started refining our shops gold scraps (as well as a few of his jeweler friends scraps). I was fortunate enough to learn many great refining practices, as well as many bad ones. He used urea too often and we had a huge bottle of compressed sulfur dioxide gas for precipitating gold.
My father tried to be as safe as he could. We had proper fume hoods and practiced safe disposal methods, but there was the occasional mishaps that lead him to inhale noxious fumes or get purple stains on his hands.
Anyway, long story short, I want to get back into refining my own precious metals. I have re-evaluated many of the procedures my father did back in the 80's, and reading and studying the vast knowledge on this forum, I am sure I can improve on my fathers bad habits.
If nothing else, I will feel confident that I am getting the best return on my scraps and won't have to rely on others to process it.
Thank you all for this wonderful forum!
I hope to be of some value to others in the future!
Ken
I am a second generation jeweler, who was fortunate enough to have a very intelligent father teach me the trade.
Back in the 80's, when I came into the business, my father was unsatisfied with the results that most refiners were giving on returns. He purchased Hoke's book as well as a couple of others and started refining our shops gold scraps (as well as a few of his jeweler friends scraps). I was fortunate enough to learn many great refining practices, as well as many bad ones. He used urea too often and we had a huge bottle of compressed sulfur dioxide gas for precipitating gold.
My father tried to be as safe as he could. We had proper fume hoods and practiced safe disposal methods, but there was the occasional mishaps that lead him to inhale noxious fumes or get purple stains on his hands.
Anyway, long story short, I want to get back into refining my own precious metals. I have re-evaluated many of the procedures my father did back in the 80's, and reading and studying the vast knowledge on this forum, I am sure I can improve on my fathers bad habits.
If nothing else, I will feel confident that I am getting the best return on my scraps and won't have to rely on others to process it.
Thank you all for this wonderful forum!
I hope to be of some value to others in the future!
Ken