Sterling growing “Whiskers” HELP

[Nopyrite]

Hello to all. Phil here from Port St Lucie, Fl. I am a new guy here on the block and I have a problem. I mixed up a batch of N/A using battery acid (NAPA Auto) and S/N dissolved in distilled water. I let the S/N sit for a day, then poured off the liquid leaving the white mud behind. After adding the bat acid, I was ready for a trial run. I put in the solution a single 24 gram hollow Sterling knife handle (I cleaned all of the junk out first). I let it sit in solution un-heated for a week. The solution turned aqua green, but nothing much was happening, so I heated for several hours (hot, but not boiling). The only thing a see now is the handle is now bristling with long thin clear spikes like a cactus. Where did I go wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

The battery acid and nitrate do not work well with silver, because of silver sulfate.
Not sure how to recover from that, thiosulfate maybe, but I do not know the details

Jim,

 

[gorfman6154]

Hello to all. Phil here from Port St Lucie, Fl. I am a new guy here on the block and I have a problem. I mixed up a batch of N/A using battery acid (NAPA Auto) and S/N dissolved in distilled water. I let the S/N sit for a day, then poured off the liquid leaving the white mud behind. After adding the bat acid, I was ready for a trial run. I put in the solution a single 24 gram hollow Sterling knife handle (I cleaned all of the junk out first). I let it sit in solution un-heated for a week. The solution turned aqua green, but nothing much was happening, so I heated for several hours (hot, but not boiling). The only thing a see now is the handle is now bristling with long thin clear spikes like a cactus. Where did I go wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the finest Forum on the Web.

I believe you made a very mild Nitric Acid using straight battery electrolyte. To make a stronger version, you need to use full strength Sulphuric Acid. Check out the Chemicals section for ways to make your own, or use a drain cleaner made from Sulphuric Acid. Make sure you don't use the ones made from lye.

Your best bet would be to start reading this Forum, especially the the posts on safety and how to deal with waste chemicals. And then proceed to the recovery and refining processes.

Good luck, Gorfman