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TroyTempest

TroyTempest

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2013
Messages
10
Location
London UK
Hello all,

I've completed 4 or 5 test refining projects now, swotted up on Hoke and taken a large amount of
information from this forum.

My latest effort has resulted in a 12.5g button as you can see below.
My question is, does it look right? All the buttons I see around the forum don't seem to have a jagged
crater like mine has and I'm wondering if I have an impurity issue to deal with.

The seed material was scrap 9k inquarted with silver recovered by myself via cementing from earlier
refining efforts.

I think I followed all the correct steps, distilled water at all times, filtering, allowing the silver chloride
to settle, boiling down twice to remove the excess Nitric, dropping lead etc with H2SO4.
After dropping the gold with SMB I followed Harold_V and Lazersteve's washing and boiling in HCL routine
all the way. Finally melting in a gold only crucible.

Any comments/guidance will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Adam
 

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Looks like pure gold to me. Excellent work! Harold's washing process is the key to shiny gold when melting. I commend you on your attention to detail.

Steve
 
You think you have a jagged edge? Check out my recent post in the gallery section, "Just a new gold button". I have the same thing going on. Looks like it comes down to us cooling the metal a little too fast. I want to pluck it out of the melting dish sooner rather than later so that it doesn't get stuck in the dish, but there is a balance. But jagged or not, I think we both have some nice gold.
 
looks perfect to me! :) I think the edges form from cooling too fast. The same principle is used when making tempered glass. the outside is cooled while the inside remains molten. this puts the outside in a state of compression. as the inside cools, it shrinks and puts it in a state of tension. The soft metalic gold can not hold the forces at bay, so it "cracks" like that to alleviate the pressures. I suppose in a very rough way, it is an indicator of purity since some alloyed gold is stronger than 24k. Awesome job :mrgreen:
 
Thanks mls26cwru and MGH for your kind comments. I'm glad to think I'm on the right track. Sticking to the dish was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
I'm going to work on a way to stop that happening.
 
Just as a footnote to this post, I had that button assayed at the London Assay Office to give me an indication
of how it stood up. It registered as 999.9 purity. That number is as much a testament to the superb resource
this forum is, as it is to any refining skills I have acquired so far.
 
MGH said:
You think you have a jagged edge? Check out my recent post in the gallery section, "Just a new gold button". I have the same thing going on. Looks like it comes down to us cooling the metal a little too fast. I want to pluck it out of the melting dish sooner rather than later so that it doesn't get stuck in the dish, but there is a balance. But jagged or not, I think we both have some nice gold.
Click to expand...
I'm late reading this thread, but I have to comment.

I'm going to say this in simple terms. Slightly contaminated gold will not form the *jagged edge* you speak of. In Hoke's book, you'll find she makes reference to that as a *pipe*. The slightest contamination causes it to not form.

Are you still concerned?

I surely wouldn't be!

It can be eliminated by controlled cooling, but is an excellent indicator of purity, one of which you should be damned proud.

One more thing. Take note of the surface finish in the avatar of the OP's button. Note how it lacks a frosty surface?

Again--can't happen if there's any contamination in the gold.

Harold
 

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