Greetings from Connecticut

[Geber]

Hello everyone. I'm Geber - or should I say that's my alias. I'm new to refining but I already love it. Hoping to learn a lot and maybe make some business connections. I have been having success stripping silver-plated wares in a bath of nitrating acid. Looking forward to discussing with you all. Thanks.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello everyone. I'm Geber - or should I say that's my alias. I'm new to refining but I already love it. Hoping to learn a lot and maybe make some business connections. I have been having success stripping silver-plated wares in a bath of nitrating acid. Looking forward to discussing with you all. Thanks.

Welcome to us.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello everyone. I'm Geber - or should I say that's my alias. I'm new to refining but I already love it. Hoping to learn a lot and maybe make some business connections. I have been having success stripping silver-plated wares in a bath of nitrating acid. Looking forward to discussing with you all. Thanks.

Please use proper naming of chemicals.
It is Nitric acid not Nitrating acid.
Nitric acid is probably the worst way of deplating Silver plated items.

 

[Geber]

Please use proper naming of chemicals.
It is Nitric acid not Nitrating acid.
Nitric acid is probably the worst way of deplating Silver plated items.

It is Nitrating acid, not Nitric acid.

Nitrating acid refers to a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

 

[Yggdrasil]

It is Nitrating acid, not Nitric acid.

Nitrating acid refers to a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

Aah I see.
Never heared that expression before.
The consencus here is that the only viable way of deplating Silverware is an electrolytic water cell.
With pure water and no salt.

 

[Geber]

Aah I see.
Never heared that expression before.
The consencus here is that the only viable way of deplating Silverware is an electrolytic water cell.
With pure water and no salt.

That's surprising! I'm surprised no one has used this method, which I found it on youtube. Just a bath of concentrated sulfuric acid, with 5-25% concentrated nitric acid. Somehow the sulfuric protects the base metal, but lets the silver dissolve.

I'll have to try that pure water method. Have you tried it? Why wouldn't the base metal dissolve?

I have used an electrolytic cell with NaOH and EDTA with a pH of 11-13, and that deplated the silver very well.

 

[Yggdrasil]

That's surprising! I'm surprised no one has used this method, which I found it on youtube. Just a bath of concentrated sulfuric acid, with 5-25% concentrated nitric acid. Somehow the sulfuric protects the base metal, but lets the silver dissolve.

I'll have to try that pure water method. Have you tried it? Why wouldn't the base metal dissolve?

I have used an electrolytic cell with NaOH and EDTA with a pH of 11-13, and that deplated the silver very well.

Some have tried and it is described in here, just never heard the name.
Most here go to great lenghts not to handle concentrated Sulfuric acid due to the dangers.
Another thing is that it works nicely if the base metal is Copper and less well of it is alloyed or other metals.
And the price counts too.
How do you drop the Silver out of solution?

 

[Geber]

Some have tried and it is described in here, just never heard the name.
Most here go to great lenghts not to handle concentrated Sulfuric acid due to the dangers.
Another thing is that it works nicely if the base metal is Copper and less well of it is alloyed or other metals.
And the price counts too.
How do you drop the Silver out of solution?

Sulfuric has its pros and cons. If it gets on your skin, it is worse than nitric. On the other hand, it doesn't release fumes.
I have to put every piece up to a magnet. If it is ferric, it can't be used with this bath. Copper, brass and nickel silver work well with it.

When the bath is stops working the nitric concentration is too low to attack the silver. I add one part to 3 or 4 parts water and denox with sulfamic acid. A precipitate of silver sulfate will have already formed, but that goes into the water too. Then I add salt and AgCl comes out. The AgSO4 will start to dissolve as well because the equilibrium shifts, and it can all be dissolved as more silver comes out in the AgCl.