[Jewelry making - Article 01558] - Re: [Orchid] Where to send platinum and gold

[John Burgess]

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>>    ....he said she worked at a chemical plant and saved the platinum
>>    from "thermocouples" for many years, and has "about a one pound
>>    chunk of platinum" and he has "industrial grade gold" * 

>     These "friends" of yours are both thieves. One has stolen over
>     $15,000 from her employer, the other maybe $2500.* 

    G'day; My story isn't about platinum or gold but silver. Many years
    ago I worked in a research establishment specialising in iron and
    steel. I was working on a special piece of equipment and needed a
    short length of angle iron. Now, being a research place we had a
    lovely scrap heap which contained anything from bits of steel to a
    large Meccano set which someone had dumped. Well, I had a hacksaw
    with me and got the bit of iron I wanted, but noticed a piece of
    thin-walled seamless pipe about 5 feet long and 2 inches diameter.
    Dang me boots if it didn't look like silver! I didn't believe it;
    who chucks away a silver pipe of that size? So I took a tiny piece
    off, dissolved it in nitric acid in the lab, added sodium chloride
    solution and got a thick white precipitate of silver chloride which
    dissolved in ammonia. Whoopee! Indeed, I had silver! So I added
    chromate to some of the solution - deep crimson of silver chromate.
    I checked for copper with ammonia (was it sterling or fine?) No
    copper, so proven fine silver. What to do do? When in doubt ask the
    boss, but I was sensible (or immoral) enough to cut off about 8
    inches first, then went to the boss with the rest of my find. I
    convinced him it was pure silver, and his final comment was "Leave it
    with me". So I did and kept the short bit as 'Finders fee" and stuck
    it in a drawer at home ("in case it might come in handy one day")
    Years later I made it into silver serviette rings, triangular and
    anticlastic shape. And the moral (?) of that is it turned me on to
    jewellery making!! 

Cheers for now,
JohnB of NZ
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