This coming Saturday

[Resurgam]

                                   Well; I'm convinced that the primary metal is gold and thought that the other metal holding the stones may have been silver and that is why I thought that the old foil and spittle test may have shown something up. The dark deposit is rock hard and only appears ready to loosen it's grip on the ring when immersed in a bath of bicarbonate of soda with the ultra sound turned on. At present, I keep soaking it in bicarb for twenty four hours and then rinsing it before immersing in a fresh batch.

                                  It's hard to tell, but I'm beginning to think that the gold will be cut in a filigreed pattern beneath the carborundum like material. It is also beginning to look as though some of the stones are going to be missing from the ring's settings.

                                  I know a pawn broker / jeweller, who took the kinks out of a silver ring that I found some time ago; perhaps he will be able to shed some light on what the material may be and how best to deal with it.

                                  As an aside..............my ultrasound bath will only run for several minutes at a time and I am unable to set it for longer periods. Perhaps that is a good thing?     

[Val Beechey]

If that is gold there's a good chance the stones are diamonds and they are never set in silver but platinum, sometimes white gold.  Be a shame if some are missing but to be expected from the beach.
Your jeweller man may have some ideas on cleaning. Worth asking.
Looking good Chris.

[ancientpat]

Hi ,
I have spent many years beach detecting and found a number of similar rings to yours and they were nearly all base metal rings with gold plating or 9ct rings that had been in the sand for many years and the salt had reacted with the other metal in the ring. I hope I am wrong but would be interested to hear the results.

                                               Pat. 

[Resurgam]

             The constant soaking in sodacarb is very very slowly starting to better show the structure of the ring and some of the hollow recesses where the stones would have been set. It is turning out to be a most interesting exercise in cleaning. Can't yet see any hall markings on the inner section but will probably pop it into the sonic bath once we return home on Sunday.

              Going to return to the same section of beach tomorrow and see if the wedding and engagement rings may be there. 

              Had the grandchildren with us in the caravan for the last couple of days and it will be nice to escape to Talacre in the morning. Drove past Home & Bargain (Rhyl) earlier this evening and saw the carpark roped off with blue and white police tape, over a dozen police vehicles spread out there, and a long line of officers combing the area. Turns out that a guy was stabbed to death there at about 1930 hrs last night. Glad we were back in the van by then and the kids are back home with their mum now. 

             Stay safe, stay well, and happy hunting

                            Chris

[Resurgam]

                 Yesterday's revisit to Talacre turned up zilch jewellery but I came away with £1.05p in decimal coins, a 1947 George VI sixpence, and plenty of WWII scrap. Back home later today and will chuck the ring back in the ultrasound bath with some sodacarb. 

[Resurgam]

Hi ,
I have spent many years beach detecting and found a number of similar rings to yours and they were nearly all base metal rings with gold plating or 9ct rings that had been in the sand for many years and the salt had reacted with the other metal in the ring. I hope I am wrong but would be interested to hear the results.

                                               Pat. 

Hi Pat,
           called in for a chat with my friendly gold buyer and she confirmed that the yellow metal is in fact "gold" but assumed that the white metal under the black Carborundum type material may be silver and if so they would not be interested in buying the ring. They buy only gold "or" silver!

          She instructed me to complete the present process of removing the gritty material and return for her to do a second assessment on the ring. Once I have completed the cleaning process I'm going to hand it in at a police station and see how their lost and found process works.

Chris

[dingdong]

Many thanks for the update Chris,seems that you were right to persist in your cleaning endeavours....mind you,its a great shame that it's not platinum in with the gold.
Well done on the honesty bit,a bit rare these days..👏👏👏👏👏.....👍.....👈

[Resurgam]

Hi Chris,
              once I get all the crud off the white metal we will be able to asses what it is; silver, white gold, or platinum. I have had gold rings off Talacre and I have had silver rings off Talacre but I have never had a ring with the coating of carborundum like gritty material that coated the white metal section of this ring.  I'm guessing that being a bi-metal ring it may have produced some sort of electrostatic field which when whetted with salt water then attracted opposite charged particles from it's surroundings.

[Resurgam]

                                    What I thought to be a white metal section is starting to take on a very pale appearance and is looking more like bone or ivory. It may, of course, be carbonate deposits that will come off with an acid wash.

[Resurgam]

                                           Sure enough, the bone like appearance had been brought on by carbonate deposits from the wash and this, perhaps, enplanes a slowing down in the cleaning process. A quick acid wash did the trick!

[dingdong]

Hey Chris,what a difference !!!... that's what tenacity of purpose does .. LOL
Well done,so,do you think you will be able to get it back to near original,i was going to say until I saw the latest pictures hat it may have been burned at some time...woops sorry!!.. Halloween's now over....lol...👍

[Resurgam]

That thought did pass my mind but my Mrs recons that it would have melted.   

[probono]

It's coming along nicely.

I must admit that I'd have put it in acid over night by now - I'm just too impatient!

[Resurgam]

                        With the process considerably slowing down now, I am sorely tempted to go for a stronger acid bath; rather than vinegar, lemon juice or coke. Which acid would "you" use?

[probono]

                        With the process considerably slowing down now, I am sorely tempted to go for a stronger acid bath; rather than vinegar, lemon juice or coke. Which acid would "you" use?

I currently use one of two acids - Jeweller's pickling (a buffered sulphuric acid), or phosphoric acid (comes as 86%, but I dilute it).

In the past I have also used nitric acid and formic acid (the last apparently used by museums).

Essentially you need to choose something that will create a soluble product from what you are etching, so it is possible you might have to try a few things. Mind you for what I etch (usually silvers or bronzes) then those two acids cover most things, although every so often I come across hard concretions that just don't seem to shift, except by mechanical means. I also keep a stock of acetone for any organics / lacquers which would prevent the acid from doing its job.

Hope this helps.

regards

Roland