# broken glass to purify silver



## PreciousMexpert (Jun 22, 2009)

I have seen refined silver before it is was poured into iquartation to be sold as small pellets
They droped pieces of broken glass in the molten silver and mix it
This way it cleaned the impurities
I dont know if this was already mentioned here


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## qst42know (Jun 22, 2009)

Crushed glass (silica) finds some use in the fire assay process. It is useful in some flux mixes for ores. It is not however called inquartation. Inquartation is a term used for alloying high karat gold with silver to speed digestion in acids.


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## Harold_V (Jun 22, 2009)

qst42know said:


> Inquartation is a term used for alloying high karat gold with silver to speed digestion in acids.


Correct. It gets its name from the target goal of 25% gold, 75% base metal/silver. Quartered!

Harold


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## PreciousMexpert (Jun 23, 2009)

Thanks guys for fixing me on that.


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## qst42know (Jun 23, 2009)

You may be referring to "borax glass" which looks like broken glass but is only anhydrous borax that has been melted to drive out the water. It is hygroscopic and will eventually re-absorb humidity and return to the familiar white form.


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## PreciousMexpert (Jun 24, 2009)

Hi qst42know
What I saw was the guy took a bottle of soft drink an he broke it
He took a few pieces of the glass from the broken bottle and he mixed it in the silver when it was molten,just before he made pellets.
The impurities was picked up by the glass
This way he cleaned any impurities.
It really worked


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## qst42know (Jun 24, 2009)

I can see where this would push any oxides formed while melting to the sides of the dish and perhaps act as a molten cover to prevent further oxidation. The risk is including some glass in the weight of poured shot and the glass slag will build up in your dish. 

A slightly similar old timers trick is used while casting lead fishing sinkers, adding a bit of bees wax just before pouring to push the lead oxide away from the pouring lip. It doesn't really remove anything just pushes it out of the way.

As a flux for silver borax is more fluid, more chemically reactive to oxides, and can be washed from the metal with sulfuric acid. In all better for this purpose.


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 24, 2009)

Whatever you thought you saw, he didn't remove any impurities from the silver with glass. It just doesn't happen.


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## Harold_V (Jun 25, 2009)

goldsilverpro said:


> Whatever you thought you saw, he didn't remove any impurities from the silver with glass. It just doesn't happen.



I'd have to agree. The only exception, in my mind, would be if there was trash floating on the silver, and it combined with the glass to be eliminated. That's a process used for removing unwanted materials from the surface of molten metals, although what is used to collect the trash is Portland cement. As far as glass absorbing metallic contaminants, I don't see that happening. 

I used silica sand in my flux recipe for reducing my waste materials. I could have just as well used crushed glass, but it's much harder to prepare, making the use of sand much more desirable. Its purpose was to modify the aggressiveness of the soda ash and fluorspar that was used in the flux, in an attempt to moderate the damage done to the furnace lining. Can't say that it worked, or not, but I can say that the flux recipe was a grand success as far as extraction was concerned. 

Harold


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