[Jewelry making - Article 01113] - Re: [Orchid] New Experience with Pickle

[andy cooperman]

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>     Sometimes I see pickle pots in schools labeled gold and silver
>     only and copper and brass only. I always find this funny, as there
>     is no reason to segregate the metals like that in an art school
>     situation 

    Charles, as you know, this is pretty much standard in classrooms
    around the country-- Canada too? On the other hand, I doubt that
    hardly any of us who are working have more than one pickle pot. 

    The answer, of course, is that since pickle strips off copper
    oxides, the solution slowly builds up dissolved copper, becoming
    increasingly bluer. Pickling copper and brass offers much more copper
    up to the solution so that the "copper and brass" pickle pot becomes
    quite blue and saturated with copper much more quickly. The "silver
    only" pickle pot remains relatively colorless. 

    Since this is a classroom, where many mistakes will naturally be
    made, the pickles are segregated. Should some one mistakingly place
    steel tongs in the pickle pot for a long time in a copper saturated
    solution of pickle along with someone else's sterling piece, that
    piece would plate in copper. It wouldn't be ruined, of course, but
    would require clean up. Separating the pickles helps to avoid this
    dilema and also allows the "silver" pickle to remain active quite a
    bit longer. 

    I couldn't agree more with you about pickling rarely or at least
    only when neccessary. This might be a great time to begin listing
    "pickle myths". 

    Myth #1: pickle is ruined once touched with steel. 

    Reality: The electrolytic reaction -- the battery-- stops once the
    tweezers are removed and the pickle is fine. (Unless the tweezers are
    left I for a long period and the iron begins to truly contaminate the
    pickle.)

    Myth #2: You must always add fresh pickle to compensate for
    evaporation. 

    Reality: Mostly it is only water that evaporates. Raise the pickle
    level with water. 

    One more thing-- that blue/saturated pickle is handy for "strike
    plating". You can oxidize or blacken the recesses in a gold ring by
    dabbing on some of this blue pickle with some steel wool into the
    recessed area. This copper plates that area. While gold won't readily
    oxidize, copper will. Any plating "slop" can be easily buffed off. I
    always keep a little spent/saturated pickle around for instances like
    these. 

    Take care and Happy Holidays. Andy Cooperman

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