I need to remove surface copper on an Argentium/copper ring. My client loves the ring, but is sensitive to copper. Is hydrogen peroxide the safest way to do this or is there s better way that will not disturb the Argentium or its Arg solder?
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Is it truly Mokume? If so the copper would be fused rather than soldered and will be in multiple layers throughout the ring. If so your only choice is to make another ring without copper. Can you post a photo of it? So we can help better?
Mokume from Rio. It is fused. The ring is soldered whete I sized it. 20g sheet fabricated with all Arg on the inside. Only problem is where the copper touches client’s adjacent fingers. We would like to get that portion off. It does wear off eventually leaving a most beautiful undulating texture looking like a topographical map.
Basically if you use hydrogen peroxide and mix it with pickle or another strong acid it will dissolve the copper. But very slowly. You could speed things up by using a stronger peroxide like hair dressers use to bleach hair. Also hydrogen peroxide degrades pretty quickly so you’d need to add more with time. Be very aware of the fumes from this process. Do this out side or under a fan and wear a mask and eye protection. 3 Ways to Remove Copper on the Surface of Materials - wikiHow Now all that said, rathe than mucking about with chemicals I would simply remove the inner silver liner and replace it with one in .999 silver that is wider than the width of the ring. Then I’d place the ring between two large dapping punches and hit it until the outer edge is tight, then burnish smooth so that it covers the edges of the ring where the adjoining fingers touch. That way you will still have some copper showing where it’s not irritating. .999 silver is easier to manipulate and shape as well as having the benefit of having no possibly irritating alloys in it.
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The only gas coming from Hydrogen peroxide it self is Oxygen. It will break down into water and oxygen in time, but we are talking about years.
If you have any warm acid indoors it will evaporate to some degree, depending on temperature. This will naturally condense on any cool surface, usually metals.
For most acids in pickles this do not pose much danger. But if you increase heat or go for stronger acids things change fast.
HCl (HydroChloric acid) will constantly evaporate even if cold and if used inside without fume hood it will “destroy” your precious tools and even maybe the house.
Adding peroxide to an acid will supercharge the acid since the peroxide is a strong oxidizer.
HCl by itself will not dissolve copper, but with air (Minute amount of peroxide) the copper can corrode to cuprous chloride and that can be dissolved in HCl.
For this purpose I think the advice of covering the copper with Silver is the best one.
Thank you for the additional information.
Thank you. The inside has no skin reaction as it is all Argentium. The smaller amount of copper has not affected the wearer. The problem is the outer surface of the ring where it touches the adjacent fingers. I would have to cover the entire ring to keep the copper off the fingers. I will head down the depletion path with the strong hydrogen peroxide. Thank you so much, Jo.