14k white gold not cleaning

Hello all.

I am having a problem with 14k white gold turning black during
heating, and my pickle having no effect on cleaning it. I read an
archived thread from someone having a similar problem, but I think I
am already doing all the things that were given as advice.

I clean the pieces in the ultrasonic before heating, I pre-flux in a
mixture of denatured alcohol and boric acid, I use battern’s flux,
and Sparex pickle in a heated crockpot, which I have increased the
concentration of three times. No matter how long I leave it in the
pickle, it comes out just as black and/or copper coated. I am sure
there is no steel contaminating the pickle, and I do not use my steel
tweezers for putting pieces in there. The only other thing I can
think of is that I use an oxy/acetylene torch, which I know burns
dirtier than the other gas combos. Could that be it?

Any -(more)- advice???

Sincerely,
Diane

I clean the pieces in the ultrasonic before heating, I pre-flux in
a mixture of denatured alcohol and boric acid, I use battern's
flux, and Sparex pickle in a heated crockpot, 

Ditch the Sparex and get some pH-down or similar.

Normal pickle has little or no effect on white gold. Paint the item
with an active flux, heat until the flux melts, but not enough to
melt any solder, then cool in your normal way. Remove the flux as
normal and the result should be a nice clean item.

Regards, Gary Wooding

Use a flame with less oxygen, try to leave a little yellow in the
tip. With a hot blue flame, metal oxidizes giving you the problem.

Hi,

Today I worked with White gold too and had same problem… Any
advice is most welcome. (I heard that I can clean it with Nitric
acid with water 1:10 - I don’t like that solution :frowning: )

Thanks!
Inbar

What if you were to drop a test piece of silver into that pickle to
see if it too stays dark or worse yet, darkens? I managed to
contaminate some pickle recently and was shocked at how dark the
pieces turned. I think that it must have been a wee bit of binding
wire that got in to the mix? Or some steel wool? I’m not sure what
happened.

Does your piece brighten when buffed?
Cheers,
Ros

With a hot blue flame, metal oxidizes giving you the problem. 

Bingo… PH down is identical to Sparex, chemically, so there’s no
reason to change that. Nor is it contaminated pickle. The black on
white gold is nickel oxides, which comes from oxidizing the metal
with an oxidizing flame. The best thing is to not do that to begin
with, but it still happens now and then. If it does, use ~the~ most
useful tip we’ve gotten from Orchid, years ago. Mix some (dissolved)
pickle around 50-50 with some drugstore hydrogen peroxide, which is
better warmed, like pickle, and soak your piece in that. It will at
least improve it and often it just flat removes it… Works
great!

At least among Orchidians, the most successful method of cleaning
nickel white gold has long (always?) been with a hydrogen
peroxide/sulfuric acid pickle. It gives excellent results if strong
enough and lightly warmed. See the archives for proportions and
instructions. Of course it is best to prevent such stains in the
first place…Here is a very old post of mine which I hope might be
helpful

At least among Orchidians, the most successful method of cleaning
nickel white gold has long (always?) been with a hydrogen
peroxide/sulfuric acid pickle. It gives excellent results if strong
enough and lightly warmed. See the archives for proportions and
instructions. Of course it is best to prevent such stains in the
first place…Here is a very old post of mine which I hope might be
helpful:

Nickel White Gold

Janet in Jerusalem