# now how do i proceed??



## Anonymous (Apr 3, 2008)

i have some 70% nitric acid...

now do i just pour it over some silver scrap to dissolve it?

how long will it take for the silver to dissolve?

will it (meaning the silver chains charms etc..) dissolve completely? like sugar in cool aid?

how do iknow when ive reaped the most out of my lot of scrap?

do i need to stir this solution of silver scrap and nitric? to help dissolve the silver?

how many grams of silver to how many ml of nitric acid should there be?

what if some items unbenounced to me are just silver plated?

is there someone i can talk to as i do this process for the first time?

any help is greatly appreciated. thnks tony


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## goldsilverpro (Apr 3, 2008)

If it's marked "Sterling", it most probably is Sterling. If it isn't marked "Sterling", it is probably silver plate on copper. There are exceptions but they are rare.

It takes about 1.4 mL of nitric plus 1.4 mL of distilled water to dissolve 1 gram of sterling silver.

Here's the way I do it.

1 - Weigh the sterling, figure out how much nitric and water you need, and measure out these quantities.

2 - Put the silver in a Pyrex or plastic container. The container should be about 5 times larger than the total amount of liquid needed. I prefer a plastic bucket.

3 - Add all the required water to the container.

4 - Put the container under a fume hood.

5 - Don't add all the nitric at once - it could create a foam-over. Add only about 1/5 of the required amount of nitric. It will soon start fizzing, heating up, and producing toxic red-brown fumes. When the reaction nearly stops, very slowly give it a stir.

6 - Repeat step 5 until all the nitric is in. When the reaction has slowed down, stir it completely, remove the stirrer, cover the container, and let it work and settle overnight. If blue crystals have formed, add a little hot distilled water to dissolve them.

7 - After settling, siphon off the top solution. If there is any undissolved silver on the bottom, dissolve it in a minimum of 50/50, nitric/distilled water.

8 - Combine all the solutions and filter. Put the filtered solution into a clean bucket.

9 - Put several bare copper buss bars upright in the solution. They should be long enough to stick several inches out of the solution. The silver will start cementing onto the copper, as a grey sludge. Stir occasionally. 

10 - The next morning, test to see if any silver remains in the solution. Put a drop of HCl or salt water into the solution. If a white cloud appears, silver remains. Keep cementing until there is no white cloud.

11 - Filter and rinse well, with hot distilled water, until all the copper solution has been removed from the silver. Traces of copper can be seen better by collecting some rinse water from the tip of the filter funnel and adding enough ammonia to make it basic. Traces of copper will show blue.

12 - Dry, and, if you want pure silver, melt the silver powder and run it through a silver cell. Otherwise, you may as well sell the original sterling, as is.

Read the forum!


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