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Pine Beach, NJ

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How do I strip silver from soft metals?

Q. I am beginning a repair business and would like to do some plating also.I need a way to strip silver from soft metals like britania. I have small tanks and rectifier. I hear that you can use nitric acid or muratic acid under current? will that hurt the base metal? if it does I can watch it and take it out before it does?

THANKS!

Dan Thomas
silversmith - Cincinnati, Ohio, US
2004

A. 12.0oz/gal Sodium cyanide 2.0oz/gal Sodium hydroxide 6 volts work is anodic. It will etch brass and nickel silver but works great on white metals. After the work is stripped I like to pickle it in muriatic acid ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] for a minute or so. Good luck.

Jon Diamond
silver plater - Berkeley, California
2004

A. To avoid dangerous cyanide based formulations, you can use 5% silver nitrate solution (you can add few drops pure nitric acid). Good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
2004

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