Cleaning specimens

Hi All,

Just a quick one regarding the cleaning process of specimens.

I am currently trying to clean a few specimens, a couple of them are locked up in ironstone so I am having great success with hydrofloric acic (albrite stuff) but my concern is a lovely little quartz spec with heaps of gold running through it. Now I have done various searches through this forum for "cleaning quartz specis" and all I seem to come up with a solution using hydrochloric acid. Is this correct as I want to keep the quartz in tact as it is white quartz and will hopefully look pretty flash once cleaned.

One more question. Are ultrasonic cleaners good and if so can someone suggest a descent one and the price they cost etc.
Thanks

all i do for quartz specie's is leave them in alibrite for 10-15 minutes and give them a quick scrub with a toothbrush and they look awesome, this amount of time in alibrite does not harm the quartz.
here is one i cleaned in alibite



cheers

koeh

i think hydrofluoric any stronger than alubrite will destroy the quartz

when cleaning species I use a solution of 10% hydrofluric acid with all the neccessary parafinaliar to boot.
If you dont take precaution with this acid then DO NOT USE IT.
The quartz comes out white and the gold is yellow. Full strength acid will devour the rock to liquid.

Regards
Oneday69

Xenon, Just stick with Koeh's method - about 15 mins. Works every time.
Geronimo.