Is there any way to remove the oxygen that builds up in silver.
Silly me melted a bunch of silver scrap into “blobs” and not all
of them were melted under ideal conditions. I would like to
reuse the silver in casting but I would like it to have less oxy
contamination. Is there some chemical process, excluding
amalgamation and cyanide, that would allow me to do this. Is
there some mechanical way?? I once heard that if you pour molten
silver through a gassy flame that it would suck the oxy out of
it. Help!!
Is there any way to remove the oxygen that builds up in silver.
Silly me melted a bunch of silver scrap into “blobs” and not all
of them were melted under ideal conditions. I would like to
reuse the silver in casting but I would like it to have less oxy
contamination. Is there some chemical process, excluding
amalgamation and cyanide, that would allow me to do this. Is
there some mechanical way?? I once heard that if you pour molten
silver through a gassy flame that it would suck the oxy out of
it. Help!! Marshall T. Jones
A method that works with gold alloys and that I used sucessfully
with silver once is to remelt (yes a gassy flame protecting the
metal against oxygen, preheat the crucible fanatically, perhaps a
chunk of charcoal in there as well under the protective lid of
the gassy flame) is to remelt, then when molten add a
tablespoonful of potassium nitrate (saltpeter-sold in drug stores
theoretcially to quite the sexual urges of humans, pigs, goats,
horses etc), it puffs up into a kind of spongy mass, then
collapses into a melt again, pour (yes a gassy flame is good to
pour through). This may help with silver, it definitely helps
with 18 K gold that has gone wrong and splinters when you roll
it. There is some loss of total mass.
Precious metal filings migration through foam padding from a bench
chair in about ten years. Refine your upholstery.
A couple of years ago we got $1404.00 out of the seat fabric,
underlying foam cushion and what we could vacuum off of the bottom
of the seat from one of our shop chairs. Today Tim striped down two
more chairs. The photo shows just how much metal had migrated
through the cloth and foam to end up on the bottom of the seat.
Jo that is why I buy a new chair and before it goes into my shop I
re cover it in leather. Nothing gets lost that way. And it is just
nice sitting on a nice leather chair…
Dear Marshall,
Hi…
The best way is to melt the silver in an inert atmosphere melting machine or a casting machine which uses NITROGEN or other inert gases where you can grain the silver. Add a pinch of Pure Boric powder on melting & before pouring the molten silver into water add about 50-100 ml of METHANOL to the water & stir well to remove oxygen from the water. You will get shiny white beads of silver ready for alloying for re casting.
This way you can prevent the silver from getting oxidized.
NOTE IMP: Also do not forget to clean the silver beads with Hydrochloric Acid & rinse thoroughly before using it for casting.
Regards,
Prakash V Pai
INDIA
I have to make a bid for recycling scrap material. It depends in part on the type of work that you do, but I’ve been reusing scrap—even clean filings—for many years. The lion’s share of my work is forged and/or fabricated and begins with ingots poured from clean scrap (including clean filings) and/ or casting shot. By clean, I mean no solder or other metals.
The metals that I use are sterling (including, occasionally, Argentium), gold (18k yellow, 14k rose, 14k nickel white and 2 alloys of 14k palladium white) and bronze.
All my rings begin this way and even the sheet stock that I build brooches and other objects from is poured and processed in the studio. I also make most of my tube and wire.
If I were raising vessels or needed ultra- high quality large sheets of metal I would purchase these.
I should also add that the wire that I use for earrings is 14k 20ga (.8mm) yellow gold wire. I buy that in straight lengths. The shorter bits left over from the long dangle wires I manufacture into posts. If I were to make a LOT of post earrings, I might buy the posts (I used to) but the extra 2 minutes it takes to make a post just makes sense in my studio. Whatever works for you, works for you…
Take care, Andy
