Algorithm and rules for testing gold using iodine
In this article:
- Iodine Test Procedure
- How to clean a product from iodine stains?
In the modern world, gold still remains as valuable as it was many years ago. Therefore, it is not surprising that many fake gold products appear. To avoid getting into an unpleasant situation when they sell you a fake instead of precious metal, you need to be able to check the authenticity of gold. This can be done even at home using improvised means. For those who like to purchase gold items, it would be useful to learn how to test gold with iodine.
Iodine Test Procedure
You probably have this drug at home. In any case, you can buy it at the pharmacy; iodine is freely available. In medicine, it acts as an antiseptic, but in jewelry, iodine plays the role of an indicator of authenticity. Only gold can be tested with iodine; this procedure is useless with other metals.
Iodine
If you are interested in authentication in this way, then buy the drug and get ready to carry out several simple manipulations, during which you will find out whether it is gold or not:
- Take a gold item. It doesn’t matter how long ago it was made or how long ago it was cleaned. The 585 and 583 samples are most often checked for authenticity, since the appearance of such jewelry may have a reddish tint and people doubt the authenticity of the jewelry. The tint appears due to the large amount of ligature in the alloy.
- Next, you need to lightly sand the product on its inside. It is enough to slightly remove the top layer to obtain a reaction with iodine in the future. This can be done using any abrasive; it is best to rub the product with sandpaper.
- Using a cotton swab, drop iodine onto the gold or simply apply the substance to the jewelry in the wiped area. The reaction does not depend on the size of this place, so try to make it as small and inconspicuous as possible. If you apply more iodine to the item, the reaction will not become more pronounced, and you will then have to wash the iodine off the jewelry.
- Monitor the product's reaction. If a dark spot appears on it, this means that the product is genuine, made of precious metal, and the gold test was successful. But if there is no reaction, it means you have copper, bronze or brass in your hands. The origin of the chemical reaction is explained by the fact that gold reacts with halogens, which is iodine.
Apply a drop of iodine to a gold ring
In addition to iodine, you can check the authenticity of gold at home using the following substances:
- vinegar;
- lapis pencil;
- magnet.
Many people know how to determine gold with these substances, so if iodine is missing, it is easy to find an alternative in the form of other testing methods.
How to clean a product from iodine stains?
Some more questions arise later, after checking for authenticity. Of particular interest is the question of how to purify gold from iodine? The fact is that iodine leaves traces on the product in the form of dark spots. The size of the spot depends on the amount of iodine applied during testing. But getting rid of them is not difficult, but you will definitely be sure that you are holding real gold in your hands and not other alloys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zO_poAblmw
An iodine stain will disappear on its own over time, especially if it is small, but sometimes it needs to be erased faster. To do this, there are several methods that allow you to remove stains on gold and clean the product as a whole:
- Weak solutions with powder or soap will not help, since the stain is quite resistant to them.
- Use hyposulfite as a cleaner. This substance, which is used when developing photographs using the old method, is also called a fixer. Method for preparing the solution: 1 tablespoon of fixative per glass of warm water. The product should be kept in the solution for half an hour, after which it should be rinsed under water and dried.
- A solution with ammonia can also get rid of the problem. But keep in mind that the method may not always work, and besides, the smell of ammonia will disappear within three days. Therefore, this technique will not help solve the question of how to purify gold from iodine in a short time.
- The oldest cleaning method is to mix 80 grams of lime with 70 grams of soda and 20 grams of salt. This powder is diluted in 1 liter of warm water; the decoration should be kept in the solution for about an hour and a half.
Testing gold with iodine is only suitable if the product is made of a solid metal alloy. If the jewelry is gilded, then the test will also be positive if you do not completely erase the gilding layer. Or you may simply damage the product, after which you will have to order a repeat gilding procedure from the jeweler. Therefore, before checking, look at the product tag or do not take risks, but simply take the ring to the master.
It is best to carry out the cleaning procedure at a jeweler. You can also carry out the verification procedure there. Of course, home methods are cheaper, but they are more labor-intensive and unreliable.
If you want to confirm the authenticity of gold in a product, you should contact a jewelry workshop and ask to determine the type of metal and even the fineness of the alloy. This can be resolved in a few minutes. Previously, cuts and cuts were made on the wrong side of the product.
But now the devices determine all indicators without interfering with the integrity of the product. This is done by determining the density of the metal and chemical reactions.
After completing the procedure, you will receive a document confirming the presence or absence of gold in the product.
Source: https://HochuZoloto.com/prochee/kak-yodom-proverit-zoloto.html
Purifying silver from iodine: the most effective methods
page » Home and comfort » Caring for jewelry
Silver jewelry darkens over time and takes on an unattractive appearance. Iodine is often the culprit. For example, cotton wool soaked in this product and left in close proximity to earrings or a ring. The question arises of how to clean silver from iodine.
It is worth figuring out whether it is realistic to perform this task at home, and what means can be used for this purpose.
Is it possible to clean
It is possible to remove iodine stains from silver. True, unlike other types of pollution, in this case you will have to work hard.
This task is far from easy, but as a result it will be possible to save your favorite jewelry and return it to its original appearance.
Features of iodine “eating” into metal
Using this substance you can even check the authenticity of the metal. However, using this method is strongly not recommended.
This is due to the fact that iodine eats into silver so much that it is very difficult to remove.
Often stains remain on the product forever.
Jewelry cleaning products
There are many special products that can clean jewelry even from stubborn dirt.
The most effective:
- Thurman;
- Town Talk;
- GOI;
- Prism Metal Polish;
- Slibo Hagerty Silver Foam;
- Connoisseurs;
- Aladdin.
Their only drawback is their high price. Before you clean your jewelry using them, you need to prepare the item.
There are two ways to complete this task:
- Wash the product in soapy water. It is advisable to use a toothbrush. This will allow you to clean even hard-to-reach places.
- Rinse the jewelry in shampoo dissolved in water.
Thanks to these actions, the use of special tools will be as effective as possible.
Cleaning using traditional methods
It is not necessary to use store-bought products to restore silver to its former beauty. There are many cleaning methods without additional material costs.
Among them are:
- Ammonia . You need to immerse the metal in a 10% ammonia solution and leave it for a quarter of an hour. After the specified time, the product is removed, washed with plain water, and then rubbed with a soft cloth.
- Soda . Place foil in a deep container. Place the darkened product on top and sprinkle it with soda (1 tsp). Then add 2 drops of detergent. All this is wrapped in foil. All that remains is to pour boiling water into the container and wait about ten minutes. After this, the decoration is washed with plain water.
- Hydrogen peroxide . This product is mixed with soap in equal proportions. The decoration is placed in the resulting mass for half an hour, after which it is rinsed under running water.
- Starch . No less simple and effective remedy. The decoration is sprinkled with starch and left in this state for at least a quarter of an hour. After this it is washed. In this case, it will not be possible to completely get rid of stains. They will take on a bluish tint and turn pale.
It is quite possible to return jewelry to its original appearance. For this purpose, both special and improvised means can be used.
The main thing is that if you fail to cope with this task the first time, do not despair. Most likely, the stains are so ingrained that it will take more than one procedure to remove them.
Next
Source: https://jawoman.ru/dom-i-uyut/uhod-za-ukrashenijami/kak-ochistit-serebro-ot-joda.html
On what metal does iodine turn white?
- 1 Check gold for authenticity using vinegar, iodine, ammonia, reagent and other methods
- 1.1 Iodine and vinegar
- 1.2 Ammonia
- 1.3 Reagents
- 1.4 Other methods
- 2 How to test gold products with iodine
- 3 Tips for testing gold with iodine
- 4 Algorithm and rules for testing gold using iodine
- 4.1 Iodine test procedure
- 4.2 How to clean iodine stains from a product?
- 5 How to independently check the authenticity of gold with iodine
- 6 Silver darkened by iodine
- 7 Gold - we check its authenticity with water
Consumers of the jewelry market are often interested in verifying the authenticity of the precious metal from which the jewelry they purchase is made.
In this article we will talk about how to check the authenticity of gold at home, list the main methods and give them a general description.
Iodine and vinegar
One way to verify the authenticity of yellow precious metal is to use vinegar. Since gold is a noble metal that is resistant to various chemical influences, its authenticity can always be verified using means such as iodine or vinegar.
Checking jewelry with iodine is as follows: you need to drop a small drop of iodine solution, wait a few minutes and wipe with a napkin. If the jewelry is made of gold, iodine will not leave any traces. If the jewelry is made of another metal, a dark spot will remain on the surface of the product.
The procedure for testing jewelry with vinegar involves immersing the item in vinegar. Gold jewelry will not change color, but one made from another metal will darken.
It is important! Despite the high efficiency of the methods mentioned above, they are unlikely to be able to “expose” gold-plated jewelry.
However, to conduct a “deep” inspection of the jewelry, it is enough to make a small cut or scratch.
Ammonia
Reference! Ammonia is a colorless gas with a pungent odor. In everyday life, the smell of ammonia is known as the “aroma” of ammonia.
One of the main chemical properties of ammonia is that this substance is a weak acid that has the ability to form special salts with metals - amides.
Ammonia is very often used to clean yellow precious metal. This substance helps remove stains, blackening and other visible imperfections from gold jewelry. Accordingly, ammonia does not have a destructive effect on gold, and therefore metal can be tested using this substance.
Reagents
Acid reagents are standard reagents that correspond to 375, 500, 583, 585, 750, 833, 900 and 958 samples of gold. These include the following:
- 375 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 59.5%: distilled water 40.5%;
- 500 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 100%;
- 583 and 585 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 46%: HCI (density 1.19) 4 drops: distilled water 54.0%.
- 750 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 1.1%: distilled water 39.6%;
- 833 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 68.7%: HCI (density 1.19) 1.3%: distilled water 30.0%;
- 900 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 69.2%: HCI (density 1.19) 1.3%: distilled water 29.5%
- 958 gold: HNO3 (density 1.4) 78.7%: HCI (density 1.19) 2.0%: distilled water 19.3%.
The action of these reagents on the corresponding gold alloys provokes the appearance of a light spot of brownish tints. The higher the gold standard, the less intense the darkening of the stain.
other methods
Other ways to check gold jewelry for authenticity include:
- magnet check;
- lapis pencil check;
- gold check;
- checking with a magnifying glass.
Checking gold for authenticity at home using a magnet is quite simple: just bring the magnet to the product. If the jewelry attracts, it means that it is not made of precious metal.
It is important! Aluminum and copper are non-precious, but at the same time, non-magnetic metals. Therefore, they are often used in alloys to make “deceptive” products.
Testing gold with a lapis pencil, which is silver nitrate, involves running this product over the surface of a pre-moistened product. If, after erasing, a mark remains on the surface of the product, then you can be sure that you have a fake in your hands.
Gold testing is one of the most universal ways to establish the authenticity of gold jewelry. You can carry out this verification method only if you have gold jewelry in stock, the authenticity of which you are sure of. To carry out the test, you need to take both jewelry and draw two lines on a hard object. If the resulting lines are identical, then the jewelry being tested is gold.
Checking gold with a magnifying glass consists of searching for an assay mark, which is easiest to detect using this item. Please note that identification marks must be extremely clear and even.
Well, and, of course, don’t forget about professional ways to check the uniqueness of gold jewelry. Employees of jewelry workshops and shops will help you with this.
Source: http://ooo-asteko.ru/na-kakom-metalle-yod-beleet/
How to test silver with iodine
Often there is no mark on a silver item and sometimes it is very difficult to determine what material a particular item is made of. Or maybe it’s not silver at all? This is what many people think when they find a spoon that looks like a silver one in the cupboard. So, to prevent this from happening, in this article you will learn how to test silver at home.
Verification methods:
1) If you smear a silver item with sulfur ointment, which you can buy at a pharmacy, hold the smeared area for 20 minutes and then wipe it off. That product should darken.
2) The iodine method, similar to the sulfur ointment method. To check whether the silver is real or not, just drop or smear the product. If the iodine cannot be rubbed off with a finger and a yellow stain remains on the item, then the silver is genuine.
3) You can rub silver with regular chalk. The friction area should darken. If this does not happen and the color has not changed, then this indicates a fake, or not a quality product (there is a lot of zinc in the alloy).
4) Few people know that silver whistles very well if you throw it up. If you have a coin, you can toss it, the main thing is that there are no extraneous sounds in the room. And you will hear a very characteristic sound that you have never heard anywhere else.
5) Since this is a treasure hunter’s blog, we are read by a lot of treasure hunters and diggers who themselves have a metal detector. So, if a silver item is held over the coil, then the metal detector scale should show the inscription silver, or a slider under this inscription. Each device is different.
But you get the point. By the way, if you have difficulty washing off stains from sulfur ointment or iodine. You can easily remove them with ammonia or soda. But be careful with soda, it can scratch the product, especially if it’s a coin.
I usually wash stains with soapy water and a toothbrush.
Unfortunately, all these methods are for home use, and they cannot be 100% accurate. Therefore, if you often deal with silver or gold, I advise you to buy a detector to determine the sample of silver in the alloy. I don’t know where and how much such a device costs, but I have heard about their existence more than once.
You can also take your find to a pawnshop. I've used this method before. They didn’t charge very much for the service, only 50 UAH, which is $7-8.
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Determination of silver by appearance and characteristic properties
First of all, if you receive an unknown piece of jewelry that looks like silver, you need to look at the standard and mark of this silver. But even if the product has both a stamp and a hallmark (and what they are, read here), this still does not give you a 100% guarantee of authenticity.
These simple methods will help you:
- Silver conducts heat very well. Take a glass of boiling water and dip your product into it, and immediately remove it (it is best to do this with tweezers). If the decoration is genuine, it should immediately become the same temperature as boiling water. It is worth carrying out such an experiment very carefully so as not to harm yourself or get burned.
- If you rub your finger on a piece of silver jewelry and it remains clean, then it is a genuine, high-quality metal. The fact is that very often scammers mix a very small percentage of pure silver with zinc (about 65 to 35), in which case a darkened coating of zinc will remain on your hands.
- A method for those who have good hearing - try throwing your silver from a small height onto a hard and flat surface. The sound should be ringing, vibrating, loud, and not dull.
- Be sure to run a magnet over your jewelry before purchasing. Genuine silver is classified as diamagnetic and will not be attracted to a magnet.
All these methods will not require any additional devices or instruments from you, which is very convenient in the field.
A short but very useful video on how to check silver for authenticity at home.
It will be useful for those people who like to buy silver on the market, or order it at online auctions.
Authenticity tests using additional accessories
Now let's conduct some more accurate experiments to test silver at home:
- One of the easiest ways is to check with chalk. Rub your silver jewelry with regular chalk; if the chalk begins to darken, then this is real silver.
- You can check in a similar way by rubbing the silver with a lapis pencil. If it is a real noble metal, then after a few minutes it will begin to darken at the point of contact with the pencil.
- If you don’t feel sorry for your product, then make a few shallow scratches with a needle on the inconspicuous side. If it is a fake, then on the lower layers you will see metal of a completely different color, not like silver.
- Pharmacies also sell an inexpensive kit called the “Silver Test”. By following the instructions, you will definitely be able to determine whether the product in front of you is fake or not.
- Place a drop of iodine on the silver. If after some time the iodine reacts and a light coating appears on the surface, then it is definitely a fake.
- Instead of iodine, you can anoint your silver with sulfur ointment. If the item is real, then a dark blue stain will remain in the place where you anointed it. It can be easily cleaned later.
In these simple ways, you now know how to determine the authenticity of silver. It is best to not doubt the authenticity of the jewelry, buy it in certified stores and boutiques.
Source: https://info.zhratsushi.ru/kak-proverit-serebro-jodom/
