# What's the best way to deplate silver-plated ?



## razvanflorin (May 15, 2016)

Hello ! I have a question , what's the best way to deplate the silver-plated items? i have tryed with nitric but isn't work well.. some of the silver is plating back on the base metal.. 
:arrow: :mrgreen: help me please !


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## goldsilverpro (May 15, 2016)

I know several ways of stripping silver plate from copper base, but I know of no good way to do this. Most all the methods have their own nasty little problems. Many processes cost more than the silver value. The best methods can be quite dangerous. 

Nitric acid is definitely NOT the way to do it. The problem with nitric is that is wants to eat the copper as much or more than it wants to eat the silver. Therefore, any silver that dissolves wants to plate back onto the copper. To prevent silver cementing back on the copper you would also have to also dissolve all of the copper - you can't afford to do that. Much of the silver plate out there isn't worth much much - maybe 1 to 2 cents per square inch of plated silver. Silver plate is usually considered a poor refining item.

What type of silver plate are trying to process? Flatware? Or, what?

You might start here. About every known process for stripping silver plate can be found on the forum.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=strip+silver+plate&terms=all&author=&sv=0&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search


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## canedane (May 15, 2016)

This question have being here before.
I collect plated silver ware, and i will cut it op in small pieces, let say a fork cut in tree parts.
I will fill my concrete blender with sand blasting sand,water and plated silver items.
Blend it to the most of the silver is gone lets say 2/3 of the visible silver.
Dry the sand, sieve it and now do the nitric job with the dust.
I have sell silver plated metal for brass prices for 20 years, now i will try to get the silver, when i have collect100 kg i will give this way a try.
Henrik the scrap man.


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## razvanflorin (May 15, 2016)

goldsilverpro said:


> I know several ways of stripping silver plate from copper base, but I know of no good way to do this. Most all the methods have their own nasty little problems. Many processes cost more than the silver value. The best methods can be quite dangerous.
> 
> Nitric acid is definitely NOT the way to do it. The problem with nitric is that is wants to eat the copper as much or more than it wants to eat the silver. Therefore, any silver that dissolves wants to plate back onto the copper. To prevent silver cementing back on the copper you would also have to also dissolve all of the copper - you can't afford to do that. Much of the silver plate out there isn't worth much much - maybe 1 to 2 cents per square inch of plated silver. Silver plate is usually considered a poor refining item.
> 
> ...


I have read alot and searched on the forum, but i can't find a good method..


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## platedscrap (May 15, 2016)

I have done it with ap, cut up the silver plated items put in ap for a week and collect the thin silver skins and melt them and refine with nitric .. still not really cost effective unless you get everything for free


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## razvanflorin (May 16, 2016)

platedscrap said:


> I have done it with ap, cut up the silver plated items put in ap for a week and collect the thin silver skins and melt them and refine with nitric .. still not really cost effective unless you get everything for free


 yea.. but i didn't wanna' dissolve the CuZn


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## g_axelsson (May 16, 2016)

Melt under vacuum and keep a cold top above the crucible, the zinc will distill off and freeze on the cooled top.
Make copper anodes from the copper and refine in an electrolytical cell.
Treat the slime for precious metals.

What, not suitable for a home refiner? Well, that's why very few cares about silver plate. It is usually considered to be dirty copper or brass. The low cost of the silver plate and the amount of work needed makes the silver on silver plate worthless in almost all instances.

Break it in pieces and put it in the stock pot, or use it in the beginning to cement silver from silver nitrate to get the silver plate for free. I usually throw it in the brass bin when I encounter it.

Göran


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## goldsilverpro (May 16, 2016)

canedane said:


> This question have being here before.
> I collect plated silver ware, and i will cut it op in small pieces, let say a fork cut in tree parts.
> I will fill my concrete blender with sand blasting sand,water and plated silver items.
> Blend it to the most of the silver is gone lets say 2/3 of the visible silver.
> ...


I see problems with this. It would use lots of nitric. Lots of nitric/silver would be retained in the sand.


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## Slochteren (May 16, 2016)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=16166

I use above procedure but as Lou stated it is fairly dangerous. Be aware off the danger and use realy good safety equipment..


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## kurtak (May 17, 2016)

Or you could try the H2O cell :arrow: http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=16591#p167641

it works & is very safe

read the WHOLE thread

Kurt


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## Topher_osAUrus (May 17, 2016)

Thank you for this thread.

While i had saw previously the methods spoken of here. I never saw the threads that came from them (a couple people were going to post on their findings...*crickets*)

But, this has given me something to think about with the couple 5 gallon buckets of silverplate i have still.

What do you guys think of this link?
http://www.examiner.com/article/case-study-how-much-silver-is-silver-plate-flatware

I think that its a bit high?..maybe some.of what he sent was sterling.. Or he was one of the lucky ones?...i dont know, but i would love some input?

Also, has anyone tried selling anything silverplate to a US refiner and not got boned?

Maybe someone has taken this path- and sold to these people-?
http://www.antiquecupboard.com/ShowPattern.asp?page=3&PatternId=4247&pattern=White+Orchid&mfg=Community+%2F+Oneida

Seems like some pieces of silverplate are *very* expensive... But, when you have a large tote/tub and a couple 5 gallon buckets..n it seems like a daunting task to get it sorted through and pictures taken of *every* piece for them to be appraised.

..i guess time is money, and to get the most for your inventory you must know all about it.

-that seems to be the common theme here huh?
:lol:


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## goldsilverpro (May 17, 2016)

http://www.examiner.com/article/case-study-how-much-silver-is-silver-plate-flatware

No matter what he says, this guy is certainly no expert and his result is outlandish except for maybe extremely high quality silverplate, which is quite rare - even then, I would doubt his figures. For average stuff, his figure is at least 10 times too high. In most cases, run of the mill silver plated flatware that you will find is essentially copper alloy contaminated with silver that PM refiners wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

According to my copy of the very definitive book, "Silver: Economic, Metallurgy, and Use", by Butts and Coxe (that's their real names), there are 6 official classifications of silver plated flatware, ranging from half-plate to Federal-Specification plate. I would guess that run-of-the-mill plate is either half-plate (1 tr.oz. per 144 teaspoons) or, probably at best, standard plate (2 tr.oz. per 144 teaspoons). The silver thickness is .000150" on the half-plate and .000300" on the standard plate. At a spot price of $17/oz, when brand new, the half-plate would run 2.8 cents per square inch and the standard plate would be 5.6 cents per square inch. After normal wear and polishing, these numbers could be considerably less.


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## Topher_osAUrus (May 17, 2016)

Thank you Chris!

I figured his numbers were a little bit more than a little high, snd that you would be the man with the definitive answer.

I have tried to find that book online to download...but you would *not* believe the stuff thay google shows when you search their names !?! -(a joke... ..not necessarily a funny one)

But, in all serious reality, I do plan on getting that book, and a few others you have suggested for my library.

I just started reading that H2O silver plate stripping thread, quite captivating read so far.

Thank you kindly for sharing your wisdom.

-topher


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## goldsilverpro (May 17, 2016)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Thank you Chris!
> 
> I figured his numbers were a little bit more than a little high, snd that you would be the man with the definitive answer.
> 
> ...


The book has been out of print for about 35 years. The only place I've seen it is on used book websites like abebooks.com. The book was sponsored by Handy & Harmon, on their 100th anniversary. At the time, H & H was the largest silver refiner and largest silver product manufacturer in the world, if I'm not mistaken.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=butts+coxe&sts=t&tn=silver+economics+metallurgy+use


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## FrugalRefiner (May 17, 2016)

I picked up my copy by being patient. I searched it from time to time, and always found a copy or two available, but a little out of my price range. Then one day, I found an old copy that had been retired from a library and grabbed it for around $20.00 including shipping.

There are only a couple of chapters on refining, but there's sooo much more information, and it all helps in understanding the bigger picture.

Dave


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## Topher_osAUrus (May 18, 2016)

Thats excellent information. I will keep an eye out.

Thank you gentlemen


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## the iron dwarf (Jul 24, 2016)

I have used a H20 cell and it seems to work, I have a small quantity of a dark powder that will need refining later but recently have been too busy to do more.
now I have just got a large quantity of heavily silver plated ali casings from comms equipment I will soon have to make a larger cell ( old one was 1.5l storage jar ).
it seems like the safest and easiest way to deplate silver


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