There are many places to buy chemicals. Check out eBay. I have chemicals which I've bought that are several years old and have never been used. Just stored in tightly sealed containers for the time when I feel comfortable using them. Once I started reading this forum and Hoke, I realized I wasn't really ready to dive right in. Start out with something easy and relatively foolproof and work your way up into the more involved procedures.
There are two major steps involved with what we do on the forum. Recovery and refining. You really didn't say whether you are trying to recover precious metals or refine precious metals. There is a huge difference.
Everyone here will pretty much tell you the same thing about reading Hoke. Once you've finished, read it again. Use the search function on the forum. It is your friend. Don't take shortcuts with safety or safety equipment. Your life and health are on the line if you make a mistake. So are the lives of anyone around you, be it relatives, friends, neighbors, children, and yes, pets. In the immortal words of Spock, "Live long and prosper.". To live long, you MUST be SAFE. One other thing, by forum members not telling you everything, they're not being jerks. They EXPECT (and rightfully so) that if you are interested enough to want to attempt what is done by forum members, you MUST be interested enough to put your best foot forward and LEARN the procedures. In the several years since I joined the forum, we are still using the same chemicals and procedures. If you decide to experiment, just remember some of the same chemicals used in processing precious metals (PM) are the very same chemicals used to make explosives. Lye can blind you in an instant. A fewof the common abbreviations we use are base metals (BM), sodium metabisulfite (SMB) WHICH IS NOT THE SAME AS sodium metabisulfAte, aqua regia (AR) also known as royal water by the ancients, and acid/peroxide (AP) to name just a few. Some of the more common chemicals are sulphuric acid (H2SO4), nitric acid (HNO3), hydrochloric acid (HCl), lye/caustic soda (NaOH), gold (AU), silver (AG) and a whole host of others. If you see an acronym you don't understand, ASK. While we will not spoon feed you information, the information you seek is all here, and the best part is, IT'S FREE. We DO NOT like texting lingo on the forum. It leads to mistakes and is not well tolerated. Welcome to the forum. Where are you located and what kind of dog is Allison?
