Mercury gilding

[Sam]

Hi Rod. I thought I'd start a new thread on this subject.

I've always been intrigued with the gilding process, but never did it myself. As an experiement awhile back, I put a piece of 24K gold in a small vial of mercury and it did dissolve, which I found amazing! The rich look of mercury gilding simply can't be replicated by electroplating, or if it has, I've never seen it. Gilding looks fantastic, and I'll be anxious to see your results when you get it worked out. Of course cooking off the mercury is horribly dangerous. Have you found a safe way to do this?

A medical dictionary online says:
Mercury gilding: A perilous process for gold-plating in which an amalgam of mercury and gold is applied to an object and then exposed to heat to vaporize the mercury and leave the gold behind in a thin layer. The risk is mercury poisoning.

~Sam

 

[Abigail]

Mercury poisoning???? Did you do this in our microwave?!?!?!?!??
wife

 

[Sam]

Microwave? Don't be silly, Abigail. I'd NEVER put something like that in our microwave!

I used our toaster oven.

 

[SamW]

Once upon a time, I rust blued a shotgun using Belgian Blue as sold by Herters (tells you how long ago). Well, the bluing solution had mercury in it and all the gold inlays turned silver in color. So what to do?

I found that mercury would evaporate at a low enough temp so I stood out in the breeze with a propane torch, wind coming from my side, heated the inlays slowly until they turned gold again, and never tried that bluing on inlays again. S. PS...I also held my breath!!!

 

[jimzim75]

I got to ask, where did you cook this off Sam? I would never put this stuff in my kiln.

Jim

 

[jimzim75]

Not quite the same thing, but I tried bombing. Stupidly dangerous also because you use cyanide
and 35% Hydrogen Peroxide. It leaches out all the alloy on the surface and leaves 24k.
I learn it form a crazy Russian jeweller.

 

[Sam]

I got to ask, where did you cook this off Sam? I would never put this stuff in my kiln.

Jim

It was a joke, Jim!

 

[silverchip]

mercury guilding

This process is as old as Egypt it's self.It is NASTY but the results are cool.I have seen it done and here's how I saw it.
1.Using 24K and a file,make finely divided grain or"dust".
2.Mix the gold powder with mercury into a thick slush.do this in distilled water.
3.Pour a small amount of strong nitric acid into a seperate beaker.Using a toothpick shreaded on one end like a brush carefully place the acid on or in the area to be guilded,the area can be masked with asphaltum varnish to prevent accidental spillage.
4.Pick up some of the amalgam with the shreaded en of the tooth pick and place it on the acid ethced areas while the acid is still wet.the acid will react with the amalgam and it will bond with the substrate.
5."FIRING"-This is probably the most dangereous step to not only your health,but enviromentally as well.(Could thid be the reason it has been outlawed?)
Using a heat source-torch-forge ect.,warm the part untill all the merdury and acid are evaporated leaving the gold bonded to the metal at a molecular level.
6.Finishing-After it has been fired and cooled,you simply burnish the gold down to a uniform finishand you can engrave through it and around it for different effects andto clean up around the outside of an object.
While the process is an enviromental NIGHTMARE,the mechanics of the process are a absolute wonder of nature.You cannot seperate the bond between the metals.[Be Carefull.

 

[jimzim75]

It was a joke, Jim!

You don't play with this one, Sam. One of the member could become the next mad hatter.
Then what?