# How do you safely remove gold from pottery and China?



## gjmathews (Sep 5, 2010)

I have been lurking on this forum for a couple of weeks now and have been doing a lot of reading. I would like to know if anyone will share with me the easiest, and safest way for a novice to remove gold from pottery and china. 
My first project is going to be this bud vase. It is coated with 22k gold. It stands about 5 inches high. I am sure the gold is slightly thicker then what would be on the fingers of a Memory Card.
I am not expecting much gold, just experience.
Remember, I am looking for the easiest and safest way.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Sep 5, 2010)

You can put it in some HCL and then add a little bit of clorox till it deplates and your gold goes into solution. Let the solution set in the sun to drive off the extra chlorine and then filter and drop with SMB.


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## gjmathews (Sep 5, 2010)

Thanks. That is what I figured from all my reading and from what I have read, HCL and clorox is surely cheap enough to make this fun and possibly worthwhile. I searched SMB on the forum and could not find a result for it. What is it, and where would buy it.

Also what amounts of HCL and clorox. Would I completely submerge the vase or would I have to use a formula of say 3 ounces of Hcl and roll the vase around?

Also, I am assuming I can use Muriatic acid from my pool supplier. Is this the same result as HCL and is it actually the same?

Thanks again for the fast response.


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## lazersteve (Sep 5, 2010)

I found the links below within 5 minutes of searching, there are more if you can learn to use the search function. Here's a tutorial on searching:

Using the Search Function

and my Forum Search page:

Forum Search

and instructions for using it

Forum Search Instructional

Here's what I found:

Gold glassware and china

and

Gold off of china

and

Gold from porcelain


Steve


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## gjmathews (Sep 5, 2010)

Steve,
Thanks for posting. I used the serach on this forum and seemed to be taken me in circles. Your links certainly made a heck of a difference in fast searching. Thanks for the efforts you undertook in using the Google bots.

I found the one for removing gold from china and glass but every time I tried to search for china, on this search bar, I got threads about China!

Like I said, I have been reading and searching and I am amazed at what yourself and some of the other pros on this site recover PM from. I also appreciate all the safety advice that you guys offer.

I an very active on CNC forums as I worked for a company doing 3D design for furniture and CNC programming. When I started that job, there was litreraly no one doing 3D wood carving and there was no one to ask about feed speeds, cut depths and rpms. I joined the CNC forum only after 3 years of perfecting my craft. Most folks on those forums look to me for 4th axis carving advice and 3D laser scanning. www.polhemus.com 

Here, I am not even new enough to be considered a beginner! :lol: I look forward to learning from you guys and hopefully to be able to contribute worthwhile information from my trials.

Thanks for this forum and thank you to you and the moderators that keep it clean informative and available.

Guy


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## goldenchild (Sep 5, 2010)

If you have authentic China you will probably get more for it as China.


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## gmiller (Sep 9, 2010)

I have had great sucess with AR . Because you are dealing with only gold, and little or no base metals, it drops out quit nicely with SMB. I use "Poor Mans AR" and leave thre excesss sodium nitrate in the bucket with the liquid AR, it appear that a automatic replacement occurs as the disolved SN is used to remove the gold. I have found that the fumes appear to be quit effective at removing the gold also. I often can not fit a entire piece into the AR solution but find that the gold has been removed quit well from the part not in solution as well as the part submerged in solution.  

Have fun

gmiller


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