G’day; I seem to remember a thread akin to this subject
occurring a little while ago: it will doubtless still be hiding
in the Orchid archives. (I’m too lazy to check) One very salient
point was the one where a chappie informed us that we shouldn’t
send rubbish to the refiners or we would get ‘done’. He
suggested the general sweepings (lemel) could be reduced to ash,
then the ash heated strongly to produce a small ingot or two and
that the ingots should only be sent to the buyer/refiner after a
couple of 1/8" holes be bored into them. The idea being that the
refiner will think you’ve already sent samples to be analysed and
not take the trouble to undercharge! Sounds sensible to me.
But then I rarely use gold, and recycle all my scrap silver
myself. I very much doubt that your pickle pots would contain
much silver at all. A very small amount of copper, yes, but
scarcely worth gettin’ yer knickers in a twist over! If you
really want to test for silver in a liquid ask me about it
separately.
Cheers
– John Burgess.
Very sensible. Knowledge is power, so being “aware” of what you
are sending in to the refiner is the only way to protect
yourself. It is’nt too much trouble to reduce the bench sweeps
(ferrous metal, rubber, paper already seperated) to an ingot . If
you get to this stage, you can even do a rough assay with not too
much difficulty. Polishing dust , on the other hand is a bear to
handle easily, but there are some general rules for estimating
precious metal yield.
– Ringold’s Jewelers since 1908 9865
Bustleton Ave/ Phila, PA 19115 215-671-8190 Fax: 215-969-1803
Ringold@IX.netcom.com Http://home.aol.com/REGALITE Manufacturing
/ Mining / Product Development
I very much doubt that your pickle pots would contain
much silver at all. A very small amount of copper, yes, but
scarcely worth gettin’ yer knickers in a twist over! If you
really want to test for silver in a liquid ask me about it
separately.
Well- my pickle pot gets gold filings (and desoldered heads and
other findings) and such in it from rinsing stuff in it, so it
is low grade recoverable material. I really don’t count the
silver in the refining, since most of my work except models is in
14 or 18k. Most of my stuff goes to Hoover and Strong- I buy
their alloys anyway. United seems straight forward. I really
don’t want to spend bench time making alloys or refining scrap.
It is a better use of my time making jewelry.
Rick Hamilton
Goldsmith
http://www.rick-hamilton.com
@rick_hamilton