Recently there was a discussion about iron oxide on gold from
contamination in pickle solution. Never had a problem, if by
accident it occurred, just dip in boric acid-alcohol mixture, heat
again and re- pickle, always works like a charm. This time had two
hollow charms that represented, small squares like “wheat chex
cerial”. Each had been soldered of course and each had 34 tiny
diamonds to represent the sugar crystals. Well surely heating up
wouldn’t hurt the diamonds, but was afraid to heat it up to much
because of the solder joints. Flamed them with boric acid, alcohol
mixture re-pickled, did not work. Does any one know of a cool method
to remove the pink hue from gold?
Sigi Eurich
Does any one know of a cool method to remove the pink hue from
gold?
You might try soaking it in a hot mixture of pickle (PH Down or
Sparex) mixed with hydrogen peroxide. If that doesn’t work, you may
have to resort to electro stripping. Sometimes I’ve had results
using electro cleaner (sodium hydroxide and water). That said, it
should be possible to heat the article short of a temperature that
would melt the solder joints. You should only have to heat it to the
point where the boric acid melts. I’m usually pretty careful about
introducing iron into the pickle, but lead solder will also give you
a copper coating on your gold or silver. Take care to examine clasps,
they have steel springs, although usually stainless steel which
shouldn’t cause problems, and some cheap chains have end caps that
are soft soldered on.
David L. Huffman