# My Silver Didn't Dissolve - Now I know Why!



## Anonymous (Feb 15, 2013)

Hello members,

I've taken out some scrap .925 silver jewelry (31.6 grams) I bought back about a year or so ago and decided to dissolve it all and refine it to make one piece of silver. I had some leftover Nitric from cleaning up a botched job I did when refining some gold powder. The gold came out great though.

Anyway, the leftover nitric, I decided to put my silver in it and instantly the bubbling started. After awhile, since it's been kinda chilly outside, I heated the solution up on low heat, and within 15 - 20 minutes all the silver was dissolved, except two pieces. Then after letting it heat longer, I noticed the ring and the nose ring (I think) still didn't dissolve.

So, what I did was remember that I've been told about using stainless steel pans last night here on the forum and then it hit me. That ring and possible nose ring isn't dissolving because they are stainless steel. There's not even a dent in them, yet they look like silver. I know they must be stainless, because the other silver jewelry is cementing right now as I write this. I'll post the yield from this just to tell what I got out of it, minus the other pieces that didn't dissolve at all. The weight of those two pieces together is approximately 1.5 - 2.0 grams, at most.

Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the rings did have a diamond/clear stone in it. I partially looked for it when the metals were dissolved, but I didn't do a thorough search for it. Did the stone survive the nitric bath? If not.. Oh Well.

The ring wasn't stamped either, yet it was added to the lot of silver I bought. One of the rings inside was stamped 14K, but I found out later on that is isn't 14K, but it is silver.

Anyway, now I have even more of an understanding of nitric acid and the processes I'm working with. It makes more sense as I continue to delve into these processes and keep reading and learning from this great forum.

Somebody sold me some stainless steel.  At least the amount isn't much or anything to cry about, but at least it taught me something, especially if I'm working with Nitric Acid.

Thanks again for all the learning and inspiration you all have been giving me. I really appreciate it. Much Love!


Kevin


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## mikeinkaty (Feb 15, 2013)

testerman said:


> Hello members,
> 
> I've taken out some scrap .925 silver jewelry (31.6 grams) I bought back about a year or so ago and decided to dissolve it all and refine it to make one piece of silver. I had some leftover Nitric from cleaning up a botched job I did when refining some gold powder. The gold came out great though.
> 
> ...



I put a large SS spoon in a solution of NaOh and now I have a blued spoon! (then it dawned on me that I used to use NaOh when bluing my guns)


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## Anonymous (Feb 15, 2013)

I have some sterling sppons and other silverware I bought from the GoodWill here, and when I used one of the spoons to scoop out some NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide), a few minutes later, after looking at the spoon, the tarnish was gone. It cleaned the spoon, even though the NaOH is in powdered form. It might be a way to clean sterlingware to remove the tarnish. I haven't noticed if the spoon still looks cleaned or not lately (about 6 months ago).

Kevin


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## mikeinkaty (Feb 16, 2013)

testerman said:


> I have some sterling sppons and other silverware I bought from the GoodWill here, and when I used one of the spoons to scoop out some NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide), a few minutes later, after looking at the spoon, the tarnish was gone. It cleaned the spoon, even though the NaOH is in powdered form. It might be a way to clean sterlingware to remove the tarnish. I haven't noticed if the spoon still looks cleaned or not lately (about 6 months ago).
> 
> Kevin


Put some aluminum foil in the bottom of a plastic tub. Put the object to be cleaned on top of the foil. Then cover the object with a solution of salt and baking soda. After a while take the object out and wash it with soap and hot water then dry it. Works like a charm. I do that with all sterling if it is badly tarnished before disolving them in nitric.


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## kadriver (Feb 16, 2013)

I always incinerate (heat to red-hot) each piece of sterling/925 before dissolving in dilute nitric.

During incineration, you can actually see the tarnish burning away with a fresh bright silver surface in its place.

When it cools it is almost black.

But the incineration also burns off oil, grease, adhesives, metal polish and other junk that is not desireable in the reaction vessel.

kadriver


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## nickvc (Feb 16, 2013)

If you just want to clean silver to keep all you need to do is use a plastic container lined with aluminium foil put the item in add bicarbonate of soda and add hot water, this is an old butlers trick to remove tarnish it basically converts the silver oxides back to silver.
Mike to test to see if the items are stainless and have no value wash them off and put them in a small beaker cover with hydrochloric and put on a gentle heat, if it starts to dissolve its stainless if not them try AR you might have some values there.

Edited for further information.


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## Anonymous (Feb 16, 2013)

I have an update about the material I processed.

*No# 1.* I should rename this to *My Silver Didn't Dissolve - I Thought I knew Why!*
*No# 2.* I recovered the stone from the powder and it's intact.
*No# 3.* I started out with 31.6 grams of what I thought was .925 silver, but I ended up with 27.7 grams of silver powder. 
*No# 4.* 1.9 - 2.0 grams of material did not dissolve. Now I REALLY know why.

The ring and alleged nose ring didn't dissolve because they weren't stainless steel. After doing some testing on those two pieces, here is what I found out.

*** The ring tested positive to be 14K white gold
*** The nose ring tested positive to be Platinum.

How did I come to that conclusion?

The ring, I first tested it with the acid and stone with the 10K acid test and the streak I made never disappeared. Then I used the Platinum acid test, but it disappeared. I then used the 22K acid test, then the streak disappeared. I tried the 18K acid test and that too disappeared. But when I used the 14K the streak didn't disappear. I redid the tests and the ring is 14K white gold.

For the Platinum nose ring, every gold acid I tested it with, the line doesn't disappear. I even did the Platinum acid test and the streak is still there, even after 3 minutes.

Now I believe for sure why those two pieces didn't dissolve in the Nitric Acid.
















Kevin

Oh yeah, I'll post a picture of the silver once I melt it.


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