Whats the best way to clean crystaline gold

[rockyredbaron]

found this about 2 weeks ago.. need some good advice on how to remove the surface stuff..if thats possible..not sure how to get the quartz cleaned up as well. Any and all help would be appreciated.

[ClonedSIM]

Beautiful find! I'm sure Ol' Grubstake will be along shortly to answer your question.

[godisnum1]

Yeah, I saw OldGrubstake's post for some acid bath he uses to dissolve all of the quarts from his finds. But he made a strong point to tell that it's extremely dangerous... to the point where you can kill yourself from the fumes. Kinda iffy...

Bran <><

[godisnum1]

Good Lord... that last post was my "666"th post... I just had to shoot out one more to change that. Sorry. lol

Bran <><

[godisnum1]

Well that's it... the Man has spoken. I hope you were listening!!!

Bran <><

[shepcal]

I'll second what ol Grubestake said. I brush with hot soapy water and if more cleaning is needed, I use Muratic acid that you can still buy in a hardware store. Removes the red tint that coats the surface pretty good, yet doesn't harm the gold! Actually, if that's quartz, I wouldn't use any stronger acid, most probably end up with several smaller nuggets
Shep

[Jeffro]

I mis read what he said, LOL! I thought he was trying to get rid of the quartz, not clean it up.... listen to Grubby and Shep-


BTW guys, here's a piece I would love to get clean-

I have already tried muriatic and nitric on it, (seperately not Aqua Regia!) and I've tried heating it cherry red and a quick dip in icewater.

Any ideas? Its rock, but I can't tell what kind, just that its not quartz.

[jewelerdave]

Enough mis information and hunches is spread around I feel obligated to speak up on this one from experience and real know how.

Hydrofluoric will work to get rid of quarts but if you get a drop on our skin you have about 30 seconds to shoot adrenaline into your heart before you die. And then you will need hospitalization and most likely will never recover fully.

Some specimens can not be cleaned, just a fact of life.

Anything iron or limonite can be taken off with hot HCL or Muriatic acid.
heating wont do any good but to remove sulfides from ore. Dont heat ore if you dont know whats it in, it can contain Mercury, tellurium and other nasty things you dont want to breath and get in your system to make you go crazy and die. no amount of gold is worth losing your hair, sight, finger nails, and having a skinny Grey appearance, and of course your mind, seizures and finally when your in a lot of slow agonizing pain...a welcome death.
When you were 3 your parents told you not to stick forks in electrical sockets. I am telling you know not to mess with some acids you dont understand and ores too, and thank god you cant get a hold of Hydrofluoric with ease, few people work with it and there is a reason for that. most just wont take the risk, not worth it. Best to send it too someone to preform the service for you.

Most specimens are more valuable to collectors left in tact as found, If there is still dirt on them some collectors pay a premium for it. particularly if you have a location and time found and how etc.
Just like you dont want to polish a rare coin. Dont Polish or try to improve a nugget. its worth more to the purists.

Aqua Regia will not dissolve the quartz, but will dissolve the gold, Aqua Regia is not used for cleaning, its for refining and dissolving gold only, Its the same effect as trying to wash salt with water...not a good Idea.
I use aqua regia all the time to recycle gold. It will eat the gold and leave the rock behind. Unscathed.
This is how we dismount gem stones from junk jewelry.
The gems are reused. and so is the gold.

Point is, Some specimens just need to be left as is.

[dave wiseman]

RedBaron andJeffro,Try muriatic(pool acid) for half an hour...acid into water! throw in baking soda to nuetralize somewhat and rinse off.Get some Super iron out rust stain remover at a hardware store,it's powder form,add enough to cover piece,add water..it foams and leave for 10 minutes or so.Redbaron,if that quartz has lot's of limein it it will likely break in pieces using Muriatic,have had it happen many times.Jeffro the host rock looks like ironstone and should clean well with the above.Shep and the jeweler gave good advice,stay away from the strong stuff and even the muriatic use outdoors and stay away from the fumes.it will peel your skin on occasions and make it turn yellow......Dave

[drywasher]

hi
i use efferdent (sp) the stuff for false teeth. i toss in 1 dose throw in the gold and leave overnight.
take it out rince it off and that's as good as it gets.
ps i'm still alive and healthy after too!
george

[nero_design]

A lot of prospecting stores offer cleaning solutions that are quite strong but not as dangerous as some of the acids mentioned above. They sometimes come as a powder which is added to water.

Hydrofluoric Acid is without a doubt one of the most ghastly liquid known to man.
I've spent some time in discussions with other prospectors on the subject recently for the purpose of cleaning gold specimens. Hydrofluoric Acid is drawn to the calcium in the bones. It's quite a painful way to die and only requires a drop or two on the skin to start the 2-3 day process. Someone placed a tiny container of Hydrofluoric Acid in the garbage which squirted a minute portion on the face of the collector recently. He died in two days after the acid worked it's way to his skull. Another chap got in on his finger tips when he touched the bottle lid without gloves. He wiped his fingers on his jacket. It progressed through his fingertips until it hit the bone. I understand amputations took place within a day or so. Blood poisoning took place not long after and he too died within a week.

Sure, it works. But if you have to use it, be sure to weak gloves and leathers plus a face shield and goggles. I was going to try some but now I'm sticking to other lower-caustics for cleaning. An ultrasonic cleaner will do a good job to remove fine particles embedded in the surface of the specimen (assuming soaking and a light brushing with 'cloudy ammonia' doesn't work) but you really do need an etching or acid solution to get rid of stains from iron oxides etc. Last time I saw a caustic powder solution at the Prospecting store, it was about $23 or so for a LARGE container. They assured me it was a whole lot safer than the Hydrofluoric Acid I was originally talking to them about.

Curious to try the anti-rust solution mentioned above. Sounds like it might work well!

[Jeffro]

Hydroflouric IS the working ingredient in rust remover. Just so you all know.

In the concentrations in household products, its a lot safer to work with than the lab stuff. Still be careful though.

[golddigger14s]

Ship all your "dirty gold" to me and I'll clean it for free!

[Santoni]

Use Wink's toilet bowl cleaner. They sell it at Wal-mart and it is cheap. It has hydroflouric acid in it(and says so on the label) , but highly diluted and if you get some on your bare skin it won't kill you. You'll have to soak it a long time though, but it will disolve quartz. I've used it, it works wonders if your patient.

Anthony.