# Question on sterling silver refined to pure silver



## Wyndham (Oct 30, 2014)

There's a art material called precious metal clay which has fine sliver powder and an organic binder to form a playdough like material for molding jewelry when fired in a small kiln. The silver sinters together at around 1500 deg f making a fused silver art pendant.
Big problem is that the commercial product cost about $4-6/gram in 20-50 gram pkgs.
If I could take sterling/coin silver and(possibly with an electric cell) convert the sterling into a fine reduced silver metal powder, I can add the organic binder( almost like wall paper paste & glycerine ) to make my own silver metal clay.
One of the threads I was reading was something of a H2O cell where anode & Cathode are silver plate which it seemed to oxidize then reduce at about the same time, giving a grey reduced silver powder(If I understood the thread).
The question also was about tap water being chlorinated helped the reaction but not everyone seem to agree on that point.
Is there any possibility that this cell might work for what I have in mind?
I have several different power supplies available(PC'S) and about 10-20 oz of silver to convert.
I'd like to stay away from nitric acid if possible.
Would the resulting silver powder possible work in this idea.
Thanks Wyndham


----------



## etack (Oct 30, 2014)

If you don't want to use nitric don't do silver.

If I would to do this without an atomizer for molten metal I would convert Ag to AgCl them back to Ag it will be a fine powder. I would also use fine silver for this so the powder would be pure.

Some people have trouble with AgCl but a few TOz at a time it should be easy enough.

What is the binder you are talking about?

Eric


----------



## Wyndham (Oct 30, 2014)

Eric, the binder is methelcellulose , some have used rice flour as a binder. 
I was intrigued by the thread about using H2O and 2 silver plated electrodes, similar to making colloidal silver. 
I suspect that the silver plate is so thin that this works, just wondering if thicker silver might as well.
Somethings I know better than to work with and acids are in that group.
I have at one time heated sterling shot(several grams) to melting and poured it into cold water(quart of), which cause the silver to implode/explode into small spheres about grain of sand(60-80 mesh) size, which might also work for this application.
And yes I search the forums before asking. There again, the H2O was interesting.
Wyndham


----------



## Palladium (Oct 30, 2014)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=13293


----------



## FrugalRefiner (Oct 30, 2014)

I wonder how many of Palladium's posts have been like this? He takes the time to search out the old posts, then simply provides the link. 8) 

Dave


----------



## Palladium (Oct 30, 2014)

The forum is like a small country. It has all kinds of side roads and country back roads.
You just have to remember the short cuts.


----------



## Wyndham (Nov 2, 2014)

Thanks, the vaporizing/condensing of silver might be an interesting possibility.
Wyndham


----------

