Good Morning Orchid/Ganoksin,
I scraped by in chemistry and so chemical reactions and what works
with what is a struggle for me. I need an opinion concerning silver
and aluminum reactions. I am wondering if I may have ruined my pickle
crystals.
I made the mistake of leaving an old cheap aluminum teaspoon scoop
in my container of pickle crystals. It was probably in there for a
couple months (grrr me!). Upon opening the container I found that the
crystals were all heavily coating the scoop, like when a teaspoon
gets dipped in tea then placed back in your sugar bowl. I could smell
the aluminum kind of strongly, although it did not etch heavily into
the metal.
At the time I just scraped the worst of it back into the container,
cleaned off & then tossed out the scoop. But since then, I seem to be
getting a weird reaction when I mix up a small batch of “super
pickle” with pickle & peroxide. My silver and fine silver pieces will
both look very clean & pretty in the bowl, but as soon as I go to
grab them with the copper tongs I get this horrible grey ghosting
anywhere the copper touches the piece.
Is it possible that there are aluminum ions left in the crystals
that are depositing on my silver? I remember from school that my
instructor forbade any grinding/filing of aluminum in the metals
studio because the dust would badly pit any silver. Is there some how
a way I have altered my Rio Pickle crystals so aluminum is getting
deposited on my work? Should I throw away the entire container?
Thanks,
Teresa