[Jewelry making - Article 00118] - Re: [Orchid] How did you break into gold?

[hans]

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Kim,

    Just for interest. 

    In the old days in South Africa, we used to do a lot of work in 9ct
    gold, which is a sort of standard gold used there. My partner and I
    had a guy that would sell us 'old gold' at a good price. (He bought
    it from rural pawn shops) It was awful stuff, red in colour and most
    suspect. 

    Then we would take, say 100 grams of 9ct and melt it with 400 grams
    of copper. This mixture, while molten, would be poured into a large
    drum filled with water to make shot. 

    Then the shot was put into a stainless steel bowl and 70% strength
    nitric acid was added until there was no reaction anymore. The
    reaction is quite radical, giving off a yellow gas, (I forget the
    name) that was rather nasty. 

    What remained looks exactly like coffee grounds, and when it was
    mixed with boric acid powder and melted, was fine gold. Still, to be
    on the safe side, we regarded that as 22ct and alloyed it as such. 

    That gave us a base line of purity and was better that using old
    gold of suspect cartage. 

    This method also allowed us to acquire gold outside the draconian
    laws that S.A. has concerning unwrought gold ---and shafting the gold
    cops was even better than nailing the tax man 

Cheers, Hans Meevis
http://www.meevis.com
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