Pickle Pot

Jack Schmidling wrote:
This brings up something I really didn't understand in Complete Metalsmith.
The section called "pickle plating". I understand the chemistry but it is
not clear whether he was talking about a problem or something done
intentinally. I "ignored" it for the moment but now it is very real and I am
trying to sort it out.

My pickle was turning green/blue so I put it aside and made some new stuff.

I have a bunch of scrap, sterling/fine with all sorts of solder and wires,
basically from experiments that I was going to add to some sterling to cast
something whose composition is not important.

I put the scrap in the green pickle and left it overnight to find some of it
nicely copper plated in the morning.

Most amusing and I presume it will have no effect on the intended purpose
but is there a simple way to reverse this?

js


Bright dip will strip it.

"Jack Schmidling" wrote in message
...
This brings up something I really didn't understand in Complete
Metalsmith.
The section called "pickle plating". I understand the chemistry but it is
not clear whether he was talking about a problem or something done
intentinally. I "ignored" it for the moment but now it is very real and I
am
trying to sort it out.

My pickle was turning green/blue so I put it aside and made some new
stuff.

I have a bunch of scrap, sterling/fine with all sorts of solder and wires,
basically from experiments that I was going to add to some sterling to
cast
something whose composition is not important.

I put the scrap in the green pickle and left it overnight to find some of
it
nicely copper plated in the morning.

Most amusing and I presume it will have no effect on the intended purpose
but is there a simple way to reverse this?

js

Jack,

the fact that some of it was copper-plated is an indication that some of
your wire is ferrous (non-stainless steel, most likely). Is it possible you
got some binding wire, a saw blade chip, a nail, a bit, or some other
non-ferrous piece into your mix?

The electrolytic reaction that occurs in the acid causes the free copper in
the solution to bond to the sterling in the presence of ferrous metals. It
won't happen if you use stainless steel, but carbon steel will trigger it.

And in terms of whether pickle plating is intentional -- sometimes it is!
When I'm making something out of copper but want to use a small sterling
jump ring (rather than make just one out of copper wire) or finding,
sometimes I'll end up pickle plating the whole thing at the end for
consistent appearance. Otherwise, it's just a nuisance occurrence.

Hope this helps!

KG