Here is my latest assay results from PW Beck. It was done by XRF not fire as I asked for, but still good. and the result speaks for itself.
How good are they, outstanding hand pours. I have been staring at the front bar for about 10 mins very mesmerizing
At the shop yesterday we poured a few bars, one using 18 maple leafs...one using 14 buffalo rounds...and one I had been wanting to pour for myself for a long while now...a Morgan silver dollar bar ( Just waited till I had 7 poor condition Morgans from the 1800's, nothing past 1900 ) I hammer finished the 2 larger bars, and just left the Morgan bar as poured...labeled the Morgan bar as .900 Coin silver Morgan with the weight ( It actually tested out after pouring, on the Precious Metal Verifier...as dead center on the 90% scale...which made me very happy because of this description on the Precious Metal Verifiers FAQ page 1) US Morgans: some read as 90% silver and some don't, even from the same year and mint. Some mints are very good (Carson City) and some are quite variable (San Francisco). Generally older ones are more variable. Lead seems to have been a key contaminant that produced this variability. Even though all 7 tested fine before melting, I was a little concerned what the amalgamation would test as after pouring...it was fine . It was just something I wanted to make myself on a personal level. We took a video of the Maple Leaf pour, 3 things... 1. My friend pouring the bar this time will NOT wear safety equipment, I bought face shields, kevlar gloves...boot covers...the whole 9 yards...but he wont wear anything ( He does use one of the kevlar gloves at the end, just to grab the handle ) 2. He forgot to turn up the oxygen on the torch prior to the melt, it had been set to a lower level for jewelry repair...thats why in the beginning it is taking longer to melt the coins. 3. My dumbass had never taken video with the phone, so it's sideways..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksVS27TDAw&feature=youtu.be Here are the bars, the 2 larger bars in the middle are the ones poured yesterday....the one second from the bottom is the bar poured in the video...it ended up 17.96 troy oz's from 18 maple Leaf coins. ( The Silver gods take a little in the smoke ) The Morgan bar is the one off to the right....
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Hi Guys, I Was making some Sterling shot / grain (or at least trying too) from part of a old bracelet and necklace and the picture below is the end result. Can any one tell me what the different colour metal is and why this happens? Thanks
When you are pouring shot, if you intend on refining try to use a clean crucible, to get thinner/smaller shot pour from a greater distance and by the looks of your metal a deeper bucket of water, keep the pouring point of your crucible hot to assist in the pour, your metal may be cooling too much as it hits the lip of the crucible while pouring. As far as the colour of your shot goes, copper oxidising in your sterling is normal, some of your shot looks golden in colour, could just be the pic, if not it may have come from the old flux from previous melts or as I have had in the past, I have done melts in old sterling in a new clean crucible and it came out with a gold colour on the blob on one side, I presume who prepared the metal had used a crucible for gold at some stage or it has come from residual flux from previous melts
Thanks for the info - you are right about the height and depth of water. I will try a deeper container of water next time. 2 of the pieces are gold color but they are gold all the way through not just on the outside. The crucible is old and has been used for silver and gold in the past. Thanks for the help.
edit: will update soon, for some reason the page accepts 1 pic only from my phone but has not uploaded correctly, I will correct this from my laptop. Sorry for the dud post and thanks for letting me know.