How do you clean your gold?

Hi All, looking for some advice on how to clean this piece of gold. Tried ultrasonic bath, vinegar and the old scrub with soap and water. All suggestions welcome.

If it is ironstone then hydrochloric acid should work over a few weeks otherwise alibrite.

Cheers

Doug

Mauriefree.

That looks to be small. For something like that I put it in a plastic film container and cover it with hydrochloric acid and leave it for 24 hours as the acid will slowly soften the stone. After that I fill the container with water to dilute the acid and dispose of it then I use the point of a screw to dislodge as much of the ironstone as possible. If there is any ironstone left I repeat the process until the screw point or toothbrush is able to dislodge it. Make sure the screw point is sharp and thin so you can get it into any tight spots. I use a Tek screw which is used to screw plasterboard to the wall.

Whatever container you use make sure it has a lid on it and keep it in an open area away from any metal and children and irresponsible adults. If you happen to get some acid on yourself just wash it off quickly. Tiny droplets are not dangerous if washed off early. The acid is available from Bunnings in 500ml bottles. I suggest you also put the bottle inside another plastic bottle for safety. The fumes from the acid will rust up ferrous metals.

Regards Axtyr.

Three things to remember
1 Don't use Aqua Regia
2 Natural Gold is highly resistant to most Acids.
3 Gold melts at above 1000 °C

Warning when using Acids if you don't know the risks and safety precaution don't use them.

Phosphoric acid (Rust Convertor) will remove Iron stains
Hydrochloric acid (Spirit of Salts) will remove Manganese Stains (Black nuggets) and calcium cement and Iron oxide
Hydrogen fluoride is very dangerous and dissolve silica (quartz and glass)  Alibrite is a weak HFL acid that will remove mill scale and will clean Aluminum and stainless steel and is good for the final cleaning of gold.
Thermal shocks also help remove debris (and some exposed quartz will shatter ) by heating it as hot as you can without melting it and dropping it cold water a few times.
All the acids can be left for many days with out damage to the gold. I have used all of the above some work better on some nuggets and others respond differently depending on the time soaked. Hope this helps.

I was totally unaware of hydrochloric acid when I left some gold soaking in my closed shed for a few days.
BROWN RUSTY TOOLS!! 

Cheers moredeep

geof_junk wrote:Three things to remember
1 Don't use Aqua Regia
2 Natural Gold is highly resistant to most Acids.
3 Gold melts at above 1000 °C

Warning when using Acids if you don't know the risks and safety precaution don't use them.

Phosphoric acid (Rust Convertor) will remove Iron stains
Hydrochloric acid (Spirit of Salts) will remove Manganese Stains (Black nuggets) and calcium cement and Iron oxide
Hydrogen fluoride is very dangerous and dissolve silica (quartz and glass)  Alibrite is a weak HFL acid that will remove mill scale and will clean Aluminum and stainless steel and is good for the final cleaning of gold.
Thermal shocks also help remove debris (and some exposed quartz will shatter ) by heating it as hot as you can without melting it and dropping it cold water a few times.
All the acids can be left for many days with out damage to the gold. I have used all of the above some work better on some nuggets and others respond differently depending on the time soaked. Hope this helps.

Looking good after 6hrs in Hydrochloric acid - to be expected lost 10% weight as it had a lot of ironstone. Thanks for the great advice.

It is a good idea to soak gold in bi carb after acid treatment to neutralize residual acid. This will also get rid of any green staining which sometimes results from the use of hydrochloric.
Alibrite is probably the best option as it will remove ironstone and staining but will leave quartz unless left for some time.