# Newbie help - Acids to dissolve silver



## lokiie1984 (May 15, 2014)

I have been looking into the silver refining process and i get the gist of it, but one thing I'm not sure about is why you need nitric acid. Can you do the same job with just sulfuric? 

Making nitric acid isn't really an issue, i have access to all the stuff (cant afford to really buy the nitric acid though as there isn't any supplier near me.) But if i could skip this secondary process it would be helpful. But again if this isn't possible that's fine too, i was just curious. 


Thanks


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## Pantherlikher (May 15, 2014)

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Here you will find all answers to your questions.
Before we step in and give you the easy answers, you need to read through post after post and a few other things to learn why we use what we use to do specific things.

Start with the main "welcome" section
This will point you in the right direction.

Good luck and we are here to answer questions that confuse or you cannot find.

B.S.


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## rickbb (May 16, 2014)

By not understanding "why" you need nitric you revel that you don't understand how refining silver works. Study more and you will find your answer.


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## johnny309 (May 16, 2014)

You can use H2SO4.....need to study....involves electricity ....more complicated......
On the other hand.....take more time to read before .....is a "DEADLY" hobby....if you are not read the safety...MSDS


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## kadriver (May 26, 2014)

Sulfuric acid will dissolve silver, but it does not do it very well.

Nitric acid is much easier to work with and will dissolve the silver very quickly.

Plus sulfuric acid will destroy your filter paper when yo go to filter out the solids

Silver carries gold and platinum group metals. Nitric will not dissolve the gold so it is important to keep the filter papers - they may have gold in the solids.

I immediately remove my filter papers after filtering the silver nitrate solution and rinsing and allow them to dry, then stick the dried filter paper with all the solids into a plastic freezer bag and save them until I get about 30 or so.

Then I incinerate the filters and recover the gold with AR.

Last time I did this I got 1.4 grams of pure gold from the filter papers.

If the silver is real old then you may get a great deal more.

I had a 19th century silver mug that weighed around 700 grams and got over 1.5 grams of gold just from that mug.

But this was a rare treat.

kadriver


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## svarbanu (Jun 26, 2014)

kadriver

This question is slightly off topic.
You said you are using non-magnetic stainless steel bowl as cathode for electrolysis. Why not an ordinary SS steel. I saw some videos prescribing stainless steel rods for cathodes. What specific reason for using non-magnetic ones?


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## Palladium (Jun 26, 2014)

Most alloys of stainless contain iron and corrosion from nitric will eat it up. study the differences in the alloys of the stainless series and you will see the difference. 300 series works great for a cell.


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## svarbanu (Jun 27, 2014)

I tried a magnet on some SS utensil at home. Some reacted and some didnt. Is that a good test for non-magnetic SS or should i go shopping for a 300 + series?


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## kadriver (Jun 30, 2014)

[*]


svarbanu said:


> I tried a magnet on some SS utensil at home. Some reacted and some didnt. Is that a good test for non-magnetic SS or should i go shopping for a 300 + series?



I took a small magnet with me to Kmart and tested the bowl with it before I bought it. I think that the magnet test is a good one and that is the test I used. I make pure silver in the nonmagnetic stainless steel bowl I bought from Kmart ($9 bucks) and it works perfectly.

kadriver


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