How To Clean Up A Crystal Inside A Stone

Cleaning Quartz
The same methods described below tin can also exist used to make clean other hard durable minerals like beryl, spinel, tourmaline, chrysoberyl etc.

Here are some pictures of quartz crystal specimens, fresh from the mine in Arkansas that need to be cleaned. These are typical examples of "iron stained" quartz specimens that are found in many parts of the world.

The offending "iron staining" on the higher up specimens are fine grained iron minerals that are typically associated with quartz crystals when they are dug from the ground. Quartz crystals are pretty tough customers and you tin can clean them quite aggressively, both past mechanical and chemic ways. By that I mean you can go after most of them with a stiff brush and scouring pulverisation. In add-on you tin put them in nearly whatever strong acid without etching them or dulling the shiny natural luster that many quartz crystals have on their surfaces (an exception however is hydrofluoric which is discussed below). You tin can even employ steel or aluminum bristle brushes if you want since quartz is harder than these metals. Y'all may have some of the metal rub off on the quartz crystals, however, which you may have to make clean off.

Are there whatever exceptions to this? Yes, if the quartz crystals are loosely joined together, similar the cluster of slightly intergrown quartz crystals pictured below from Herkimer, New York. Crude cleaning of crystals of quartz crystal specimens similar this, may cause the crystals to separate from each other where they are attached to ane some other.

If the quartz crystals are sparse and prismatic like these and intergrown like the 2 specimens below, from the Jeffrey Quarry, Jeffrey, Pulaski Co., Arkansas, The states or from Huaron, Peru, rough treatment may crusade some to break off.

If the quartz is of the "water quartz" (fenster/jacaree/elestial) variety, the crystals may incorporate fluid inclusions with bubbles. Subjecting them thermal stress similar freezing temperatures or tossing them in hot water may cause cracking.

Quartz crystals from some localities seem to be more sensitive to thermal stupor than those from others. The quartz from Herkimer, New York appear to be some of these. When removed from the basis, some collectors have learned to quickly wrap them up, mud and all, and put them in an ice chest to let them get used to life exterior of the pocket they formed in. So, in a mean solar day or and so, they are carefully cleaned with water that is at the same temperature every bit the quartz. Non doing this risks shattering the crystals or creating internal cracks in some of the oftentimes beautifully clear "herks". Crystals from some Herkimer county localities seem to be more sensitive to thermal shock than others. These are the exceptions. Most quartz crystals are tolerant of considerable temperature modify. Even so this is something to call up about when cleaning your quartz crystals. If yous clean a lot of quartz from a item locality, you will quickly learn what they can tolerate and what they can not. Finally, your cleaning options may exist limited if your quartz specimens are associated with fragile associated minerals. These frail minerals may be damaged by some of the chemicals that might otherwise exist used to make clean them. A mutual example would be quartz associated with calcite. If you put the specimen in acid, the calcite would deliquesce in the acid while liberating lots of bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other than these exceptions, you should feel free to have at them.

Go on in mind that in nearly cases the "clay" yous want to make clean off of your quartz crystal(s) is also a mineral(s). Thus when yous "clean" the specimens you lot are actually removing a mineral(s) from the specimen that nature put there. A few collectors and mineralogists feel that by removing this "clay" you are destroying data that would better exist preserved for future generations. Historically, this clay is not ofttimes kept intact considering of the profit to be fabricated by proper cleaning. If you are worried about this you tin leave some of the original "dirt" on the specimen in a identify where it will not backbite from its "curb appeal". Fortunately, quartz is one of the most abundant minerals on earth, and for every specimen you "destroy" by cleaning, in that location are enough more left to study.

For several years during the 1980s, I and some associates ran a petty quartz mine in Minas Gerais state in Brazil in the hills merely exterior of the piffling boondocks of Joacuam Felicio. This mine was non in the great granitic region of the land which as well produces many fine quartz crystals, but rather in the role that held role of the vast Itacolomi sandstone formation. It was one of many hundreds of modest mines that had been started during the second world war to provide quartz for the war effort. It produced mostly unmarried quartz crystals measuring less than six inched long, but many contained cute green phantoms.

About of the crystals were not very shiny and had some of damage. Nosotros found that the way to marketplace them successfully was to have the surfaces ground down past using a fast rotating sanding belt and then polishing using a felt polishing cycle and a tin oxide polishing powder. They sold well. I had a number of collectors inquire me to bring in some of the natural unpolished crystals, which I did, only even when I priced them less than polished crystals of comparable quality, they they did not sell well. Finally, I only told our cut and polishing shop to smoothen them all, though I did save a few in their natural state. So I judge the lesson I learned is that in reality very few people are concerned with preserving the natural "dirt" or natural etching on quartz crystals. But, for the sake of future generations, you should make certain all specimens you collect are labeled with the mine name, state/province and land. Since there are then many different quartz localities and often it impossible to know the locality of a specimen past just looking at it, y'all should actually glue a label right on the specimen that specifies the locality. Also it can't hurt to preserve a few in their natural state.

Nigh of the time a person wanting to clean quartz crystals is trying to remove brown "atomic number 26 stains" or a white coating from the crystals. Quartz crystals from pegmatitic environments are frequently coated fine grained mica or various clay minerals. Quartz from sedimentary environments like those from the sandstones of Arkansas, USA or those from the sandstone areas in Minas Gerais Brazil are ofttimes "iron stained". In these examples and many more, the quartz is covered or stained with other minerals that detract from the prissy shiny, sparkling surface of the crystals. Those of usa with a practical bent hope that, lurking simply below the offending crud, are beautiful, shiny quartz crystals. In most cases you don't have to know exactly what those minerals are in gild to clean them. However if you tin can discover what the mineral(s) is, that data tin can sometimes help y'all to know how to clean it. Oft these fine grained "iron stains" or white coatings are not easy to characterize mineralogically, and information technology is not worth the attempt to analyze them.

The cleaning method you cull volition usually depend upon your finances and where you live. These will make up one's mind the tools and chemicals available to yous. I am a big wholesaler of minerals in the Los Angeles, California area and have easy admission to a broad range of cleaning tools and chemicals. Over the years I have tried most of the various cleaning methods described in this article. We will consider first cleaning with mechanical methods before we movement on to chemicals.

1. Mechanical cleaning methods for quartz crystals
To a certain extent your cleaning method will depend upon how much quartz y'all accept to clean. If you are running a quartz mine in Arkansas or digging amethyst from the decomposed basaltic soil virtually Artigas, Uruguay, you volition likely have pick-up trucks full of quartz to clean. In this case the first thing you demand to do is to employ h2o to clean them upward as much as possible. If your specimens are heavily coated with mud, similar the amethyst dug from the basaltic soil near Artigas, the best way to start is to place the specimens on the ground(concrete or asphalt preferred) or perhaps on rectangular screens nailed to 2x4 human foot wooden frames. Blast them with water using as much force per unit area every bit yous can manage. H2o from a hose is OK, but that from an electrical or gas powered pressure washer is ameliorate. Don't use as well much pressure or y'all will damage them by blasting them into one another or cause them to ringlet them around on the ground, causing them to chip and crack. I take heard of some people who don't have a pressure washer taking taking their specimens to ane of the money operated machine wash places and used the pressure washers in that location to make clean their specimens. If the specimens take a lot of thick mud on them, afterward the offset wash they are left to dry out. This will usually cause the remaining mud to fissure and shrink and allows subsequent washing to remove more of the mud. This process is repeated until it is clear that repeated washing and drying cycles will be unproductive. If you have only a few specimens to make clean, just scrub them upwards with a brush and lather and h2o or utilise one of the piddling fabric loftier pressure cleaning guns described below to clean off as much dirt equally yous can.

After you have removed every bit much of the gross clay/mud as you can and feel that the specimen(s)need farther cleaning, examine information technology closely and scratch at whatsoever remaining "dirt" with a knife bract. Come across if y'all can dislodge the offending material. Use the point of the bract if yous accept to. Don't worry about pain the quartz crystal since information technology is much harder than the steel of your knife. Worry instead about the blade slipping and cut your hand. Ideally, yous will desire to do this under a binocular, reflected calorie-free microscope, simply a magnifying drinking glass or sharp eyes may serve also. Y'all do this so you lot tin see exactly what happens when you scratch the crystals confront and if you are actually making whatever progress in removing the offending coating. Don't be agape to really go after it. If you lot can scrape any office of the surface clean at all, even if information technology is only in a tiny area, there is a skilful chance that you will be able to clean the quartz mechanically. If yous can't scrape whatever of the surface clean, then it is probable that the surface of the quartz has been naturally etched or the offending material is intergrown into the surface of the crystal or has been included merely beneath the surface. If the cloth you would like to remove is intergrown with the surface of the crystal or included just beneath it you are sunk and at that place is not much you can do to improve the specimen curt of grinding abroad the surface and polishing it using normal lapidary procedures. These lapidary procedures are generally labor intensive and you lot can't only "buff up" the crystals and make them shine like you tin do with brass or copper. I know of no chemic method that makes a dull quartz crystal shiny. Well, wait! I should not say that. I have seen formerly quite unattractive quartz crystals that have been put in the large, heated stainless steel autoclaves full of full-bodied brine solution that are used to grow synthetic quartz and afterwards new quartz has been grown on elevation of these crystals and they expect quite nice. But, that is the simply exception I know nigh. If you tin't make a dent in what it is you want to remove with the indicate of a knife bract there may yet still exist a tiny shard of hope left, but I'll discuss that below. This volition be for the real diehards who know something about chemicals and how to utilize them safely.

2. Lather and Water To clean quartz specimens a first expert stride is to scrub up one or two of them them with soap and h2o. Apply liquid detergent soap, if you tin, rather than some other kind and warm h2o. This volition remove whatever easily removable dirt and can can often give you an indication of how to proceed. If your detergent is the kind that has perfume or lemon olfactory property added, your specimens will have the added virtue of smelling prissy. Oftentimes, experienced cleaners volition skip this pace and proceed to blasting their specimens with loftier force per unit area water using cloth guns to see if that will remove the offending substance. The easiest manner to do that is to purchase one of the piddling handheld cleaning guns called fabric cleaning guns. They are commonly used in the dry-cleaning industry for removing spots from textile. You tin buy these for less than $75. If you Google "spot cleaning gun" you will find a lot of these offered for sale. These picayune "buzzer guns" used to cost several hundred dollars and yet many dealers bought them, because they cleaned specimens and so wonderfully and fabricated the dealers and so much money. Frequently, knowledgeable collectors and dealers still often option up old specimens that were not cleaned well because the clay was downward in the cracks and their onetime owners could non make clean them well with soap and water and a scrub brush. Ofttimes five minutes or less working on them with 1 of these new footling cloth guns will will increase the value of a fine sometime specimen past hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The advent and availability of these little cleaning "guns" has been revolutionary for those who want to clean specimens. Its impact on cleaning minerals is similar the difference betwixt copying a book by hand using a quill and ink compared to printing it with a laser printer.

These little "guns" have a curt barrel. Merely beneath is a bulb like plastic reservoir that the user periodically unscrews and fills with h2o (hot and soapy if you wish). When you pull the trigger on these handy little devices, a piffling spring driven piston hammers rapidly back and forth and forces minor but powerful jets of water out of the nozzle. Information technology looks continuous simply in reality it is intermittent. If yous put your finger directly in front of the nozzle, the stream is often powerful enough to drive h2o under your skin, but the force of the stream quickly diminishes with altitude from the butt because of turbulence. A thou or so from the nozzle, the stream turns into a mist. You can quickly get a feel for just how much strength you are applying to the specimen by belongings your paw as far away as you tin can from the nozzle and then bringing your hand closer. Pretty soon yous will feel the water stream confronting your hand and when yous come close enough, it will start to sting. It is a adept idea to stop at that bespeak. By doing this lilliputian exercise yous tin can quickly tell how far away from the specimen you will need to hold the gun to apply the amount of force you want. You volition commonly concur the "gun" in i hand and the specimen in the other. With quartz, yous can unremarkably smash away to your eye's content. You may demand to be careful with delicate specimens having many tiny thin needles of quartz because, if they are not firmly fastened to the specimen, you can sometimes blow them correct off. Y'all volition observe, yet, that crystals are often tougher than you might think. Once you proceeds a little experience, you will discover you can scratch at your quartz with the signal of a knife and know if it can likely be cleaned with loftier-pressure water.

When y'all use these little spot cleaning guns you should apply something to protect your optics. I find that the glasses I usually wearable are sufficient to protect my eyes from the petty $.25 of rock and dirt that the spot cleaning gun blasts off of dirty specimens. However if y'all don't clothing glasses, protective goggles are in order. If you are going to be cleaning a number of specimens you lot will too find that a plastic rain coat volition proceed your clothes from getting moisture and having a lot of tiny bits of rock and clay diddled onto them. I have sometimes used them virtually my kitchen sink and afterward found that bits of stone and dirt have been liberally scattered over the sink, counter tops, splash boards, walls and windows, and what ever else is near by.

Sometimes the loftier-pressure level water will only partially clean the specimen and to finish it y'all may need to switch to a somewhat more aggressive mechanical cleaning method, namely using an air abrasive tool. Commonly however, if we judge that the coating is really tough to scrape off we volition skip the high-pressure water and go directly to i of our air abrasive units.

3. Air Abrasive Tool Cleaning and Air Scribes.
If blasting your quartz crystals with high pressure will not remove the offending textile, in that location is yet another mechanical means of cleaning that will most certainly work, providing of course that you could scrape abroad a scrap of the offending fabric with a knife blade equally described higher up. This is by using an air annoying tool. Some people telephone call these sand blasters. These operate by directing a stream of high-pressure air that carries an annoying medium against the specimen. The abrasive cloth acts similar a scouring powder to remove or abrade abroad what it is directed against. The trick is that y'all need to use an abrasive medium that is less hard than the cloth you are trying to clean in social club to avoid harm to the specimen. With quartz I recommend yous use tiny glass beads rather than quartz or garnet sand. The drinking glass beads will non visually impairment the surface of a quartz providing that the air pressure level is not to high and that the glass beads are relatively make clean and do not comprise to many sharp of broken glass or other hard impurities. Quartz or garnet sand volition unremarkably remove the shiny surface of quartz crystals and leaving tedious. If you lot do not have admission to an air abrasive tool, see if one of your local garages or metal working establishments has one that they use to make clean spark plugs or debur metal parts and come across if yous tin can borrow some fourth dimension on it. But brand sure that you don't use anything more aggressive or harder than glass chaplet. Start out with well-nigh sixty pounds of air pressure level and increase if necessary. Frequently you can clean up small specimens of quartz (mitt size) in a few minutes with this kind of equipment. Air abrasive tools are commonly used with different kinds of annoying powders to clean and ready fossils. We have used large and small versions of this equipment for years with different kinds of abrasive media and they have paid for themselves many times over.

If yous don't have access to this kind of equipment, you tin practise it the erstwhile fashion way and just keep scraping away with mitt tools. Used dental picks make wonderful tools for this type of work and piffling hand electric grinders like flexible shaft tools can be handy. But no affair how much time you spend cleaning your quartz past hand, the results will rarely be as skillful as you can obtain with air abrasive equipment and it will take you ten to a hundred times longer.

Another modern tool that is often handy when "cleaning" quartz specimens is an air scribe. This is a petty miniature hand held jackhammer powered past compressed air. They look a little bit similar fat pencils and can be used to aid shape your specimen or to remove chunks of offending cloth that may exist growing on your quartz crystals. If yous take enough time with the air annoying tool, you tin can often remove large thick masses of material, but ofttimes an air scribe will remove information technology in seconds rather than minutes or hours. Air scribes are also commonly used to remove saw marks from specimens that have been trimmed to size by diamond saw blades. We have some made by Chicago Pneumatic. There are different kinds, some designed to remove small amounts of matrix, and others that will remove a nifty deal more.

4. Ultrasonic Cleaners
Before the appearance of fabric guns, ultrasonic cleaners were oft the cleaning device of choice to clean specimen. These cleaners come in various sizes from those that hold a small cupful of cleaning solution, usually h2o with a little detergent soap in information technology, up to giants you could most take a bath in. Usually they are made from stainless steel and are driven by transducers of piezoelectric materials similar pb zirconate titanate (PZT), barium titanate, etc) only are sometimes fabricated from magnetostrictive materials glued to the outside walls of the tanks. They strongly vibrate the cleaning solution and this causes tiny bubbles to class (cavitation) and the collapse of these micro bubbles creates a lot of energy and cleaning action. In the larger, more powerful models, the water will heat upwards as you use the device and this also enhances the cleaning process. The material to be cleaned is suspended in the tank. If you put specimens on the bottom of the tank, this will often reduce the cleaning effect, sometimes dramatically, because it reduces the amount of cavitation and therefore the cleaning efficiency of the unit. Often cleaning will accept identify inside a few minutes. This device, all the same, is usually not very skilful at cleaning a lot of dirt out of deep cracks or below overlapping crystals or specimens with a lot of dirt or well consolidated dirt. Also, larger units are sometimes quite noisy and some emit a high pitched squealing sound that is quite penetrating. The proficient units, and those large enough to hold larger specimens tin cost several hundred to several grand dollars each. Nosotros apace discontinued the use of these units presently later we got our first fabric guns.

Chemical Cleaning
Mayhap the well-nigh common reason people want to clean quartz is to remove dark-brown "fe stains". These "iron stains" are acquired generally past two iron oxide minerals: hematite and goethite. They are usually a rusty brownish color just can manifest a range of colors from black to blood-red. The term limonite is oftentimes used to name them collectively. There are a number of other minerals that lie in that color range and may require chemical treatments other than those discussed below. A lot of this offending cloth can be removed by mechanical means, frequently hands with loftier-pressure water or by utilise of an air annoying tool. But if the collector does not have access to these devices he often hopes for some magic liquid that he tin can dip his specimen into that will remove the offending material. I call back that the success of some commercial cleaners like Tarnex (a silver cleaning solution) where the user dips tarnished silver into the solution and, magically, the silver becomes bright, is the root cause of this desire. For cleaning quartz, no such magic solution exists.

If you accept "fe stained" quartz crystals, diggings them with high-force per unit area water and/or an air abrasive tool will remove a lot of the iron staining, but almost certainly some of the staining volition remain down in the cracks. To completely or almost completely remove information technology, y'all will need to utilise chemicals. Before you lot use chemicals, I would suggest you clean the specimen too as you can with the above methods. This will allow you to chemically clean your specimens more quickly and use a smaller amount of chemicals to do and then. At that place are three main ways to chemically remove "fe stains" from quartz. They are by the use of: one. A Waller solution (Iron Out), two. Oxalic acid, or iii. Hydrochloric acrid. These three chemical methods will remove "iron stains": (hematite & goethite). I should land that at this point that it is virtually impossible to remove well-developed crystals of hematite and goethite with the chemicals discussed below as these chemicals are effectively only in removing the fine-grained equivalents of these minerals.

These three chemical reagents are helpful in removing hematite (iron oxide) and goethite (atomic number 26 hydroxide) specifically, so if your "iron stains" are caused by other minerals, these three chemical methods may not work for you. If you know exactly what offending minerals are on your quartz specimens and have some knowledge of chemistry, and then the choice of chemical cleaning agents is much more clear-cut. Ideally, a person wanting to clean some quartz specimens would analyze the offending "dirt" and detect out exactly which mineral(due south) contain the "dirt" and would then selection the advisable chemic cleaning method. In practice it is usually easier to experiment with easily available chemicals than become to the trouble of doing the required analysis that is often not simple or straightforward, especially when dealing with fine-grained mixtures of various minerals. So, since the nature of what you want to remove may be in incertitude, the best advice I tin give you is to effort 1 of these 3 chemical reagents on a not very valuable specimen and see if the reagent you choose volition accomplish what you want.

v. Waller Solution (Iron Out)
If you make up one's mind to use chemicals to clean your quartz, I would definitely recommend that you first try using a Waller solution considering (1.)the chemicals in this solution are usually not hard to obtain at least in the The states and more importantly (2.)are generally less harmful than oxalic or hydrochloric acid. The Waller solution is a buffered solution of sodium dithionate. Easier than buying the chemicals and mixing them yourself, you lot can purchase a product from Wal-Mart called Super Iron Out. You purchase it in plastic bottles. It is a fine white powder and you mix it in water according to the directions on the bottle. If you don't have a Wal-Mart well-nigh you, accept someone who does buy some and send information technology to you. You can as well Google the proper noun, Iron Out, or apply http://world wide web.summitbrands.com/summit/ and buy some through the mail. Maggie Wilson, ane or our regular Mindaters informs us that in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland Iron Out is known every bit Rust Out and is distributed by Aqua Cure, Phone: 01704 516916 Website: world wide web.aquacure.co.uk. Address: Aqua Dosa, Southport, England PR90SE

Sometimes "fe stains" work their way deeply into cracks in quartz, and you may take to soak your specimen for days or weeks for solutions of chemical reagents to deliquesce and remove the stains. There may be the rare example where you are unable to remove them all. A solution of sodium dithionate is not very stable because it reacts with atmospheric oxygen. Therefore you should not await it to be useful afterward a few days. We take switched over to this method of removing fe stains nigh exclusively from other chemic methods considering it is quick and like shooting fish in a barrel and we practise not have to neutralize information technology when done and disposal problems are minimal.

Franklin Roberts, from Austin, Texas, a knowledgeable Mindat regular provides us with the post-obit useful information for people who wish to make their ain Iron Out solution. This may prove especially useful for those who alive in countries where it is not possible to purchase a commercially bachelor cleaning production like Atomic number 26 Out or Super Iron Out.

Recipe for making a Waller solution:
33g sodium dithionite also known as sodium hydrosulfite
28 grand NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate)
59 thou sodium citrate
Add about 800 cubic centimeters/milliliters of water, swirl it effectually until the chemicals deliquesce and add enough water to brand up a liter in volume.

If you would rather make a gallon of the solution, only multiply everything past four. It works slowly at room temperature and faster if heated, only don´t go across 60 °C. The other compounds beside the dithionite are for buffering/complexing reasons and may forestall precipitation of a night greenish black coating (pyrite) on your specimen(south).

The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) lists the agile ingredients of Super Atomic number 26 Out as:
Sodium Metabisulfite 20-65%
Sodium Hydrosulfite 20-65%

In this case, the prefix "meta" which is Greek for "afterwards" refers to the fact that the metabisulfite is the species that comes later sodium bisulfite (dithionite) in the concatenation of oxidation products going from sodium dithionite -> sodium metabisulfite -> sodium dithionate. These three compounds are also known as sodium hydrosulfite, sodium pyrosulfite and sodium bisulfate, respectively. Pretty confusing, isn't information technology? The reason that super fe-out lists a wide range of percentages for the two ingredients isn't because they don't want you to know how much of each is in their production; it's because they don't know themselves. The bodily ratio is a moving target. Remember, pure sodium dithionite is a potent reducing amanuensis capable of snatching two atoms of oxygen from the air, water or anywhere else it tin can go them. As soon equally it snatches the starting time oxygen, it becomes sodium metabisulfite and can but grab one more than oxygen atom before condign the fully-oxidized sodium dithionate, which is useless as an iron oxide reducing agent. However if yous accept a swimming pool, it is great for lowering the pH. Products such as super iron-out commonly are made from industrial grade chemicals that contain a lot more impurities than the reagent or high-purity grades. The reason for using this feedstock is that the industrial grade chemicals sell for a few dollars a ton, while the pure stuff can cost a few dollars a pound. If all you desire to practise is remove fe stains from your driveway (or your minerals) industrial or technical grade will work just fine. The feedstock used to make super atomic number 26-out probably started out as a moderately pure sodium dithionite (hydrosulfite), but during manufacture and storage, it gradually absorbs oxygen from the air and some of it is oxidized, becoming sodium metabisulfite (pyrosulfite). Since the pyrosulfite is nevertheless a proficient reducing amanuensis, it'due south OK to leave it in the mix, but it's nearly impossible to become an accurate estimate on the proportions. Every bit time goes by, more of the dithionite will transform into the metabisulfite and then to the dithionate. Eventually, the entire batch will dethrone into a solution of sodium dithionate and its days equally a stain remover are over. That's why it'south so important to keep the container sealed and abroad from the air every bit much as possible.

6. Oxalic Acid
The use of oxalic acid in cleaning quartz crystals.
Whatever you exercise, I would suggest you to utilize Atomic number 26 Out equally described in a higher place before yous apply oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is a poisonous white crystalline powder that is dissolved in water and has the ability to dissolve various fine grained atomic number 26 minerals and clean your chocolate-brown quartz. Oxalic acid is the toxic substance that makes rhubarb leaves poisonous to eat. For many years information technology was, and sometimes yet is, sold in hardware stores for diverse purposes, perhaps the near common of which was to bleach wood. When you piece of work with this chemic y'all should habiliment plastic gloves and brand certain not to inhale its dust or get whatever in your mouth. Don't leave solutions of this material lying effectually because they are poisonous. Before you start, get to Wikipedia on the net and read what it has to say about oxalic acrid. Be sure to use technical or industrial grade considering it is much cheaper than purer grades and will piece of work just fine for cleaning your crystals. It is all-time that this chemical is used in plastic or ceramic containers and non metallic ones, because the oxalic acid volition assault about metals. You tin get away with using an iron container like a 55 gallon pulsate, merely the acid will gradually consume it up and generally make a mess. To give you lot a good idea what y'all are faced with, a pound to a pound and a half of oxalic acid in a v gallon bucket of water will brand a good solution for cleaning quartz. The oxalic acrid volition have a few minutes to dissolve and you lot must go along stirring until it does. If you lot apply warm water it will deliquesce faster. Oxalic acid was used for many years to clean quartz in Arkansas and is even so the chemical of choice amidst the miners who clean big amounts of quartz. They use big steel tanks made from T1 steel that they heat with gas burners, nigh to boiling. In this way they tin clean large quantities of quartz crystals overnight though sometimes the specimens need a second run through the acrid to make clean them completely. They buy their oxalic acrid (mostly of Chinese manufacture) in large bags by the pallet full. This has proved to exist the virtually economical style they accept found to clean their quartz.

Most small time diggers who need to remove iron stains from specimens have switched over to high-pressure water and Fe Out. When you have finished cleaning you specimens with an oxalic acid solution you lot should non throw it down the drain. Y'all can neutralize whatever remaining oxalic acid in solution with limestone fries, which will produce a white relatively insoluble precipitate of calcium oxalate, ane of the components of many kidney stones. Most people who use this chemical just keep the used solution around to use again and occasionally add more than oxalic acrid every bit needed. Some let it evaporate to dryness. I accept used oxalic acrid on many occasions to clean "iron stains" from quartz crystals and crystals of the blue variety of microcline called amazonite. If you want you tin heat information technology up and this will cause your specimens to be cleaned faster. I have done this in crock pots and stole the starting time ane from my kitchen! An alternative to applying electric or fired rut is that you tin can put the oxalic acid solution in black containers or cover the containers in blackness plastic and let the sun heat the solution for you. If you use a plastic container you can heat these to about 55 degrees centigrade before they soften and start to deform. L 5 degrees centigrade is only near as hot as yous mitt can stand and all the same remain on the plastic without undue hurting. Covering them with black plastic in the lord's day should not crusade them to deform. A rule of pollex for chemical reactions is that for every 10 degree centigrade increase in temperature, the reaction rate will double. When your specimens are make clean, you should rinse them off and let them soak in clean h2o for a few hours. You lot may want to repeat this rinse process several times. Soaking overnight is good. Sometimes, if your quartz specimens take calcium or atomic number 26 bearing minerals on them, or the water y'all are using has a lot of calcium or iron in information technology, it will crusade calcium or iron oxalate to precipitate out of solution and coat your specimens with more crud you volition and so have to clean off with hydrochloric acid.

vii. Hydrochloric Acid
Hydrochloric acid, or muriatic acid or "puddle acid" is hydrogen chloride gas, HCl, that has been dissolved in water. It is sometimes been used to clean quartz, but the methods above are meliorate, safer and less trouble. But if you don't have them, y'all tin can employ hydrochloric acid. Before you try and use this acid, go to Wikipedia on the net and read what it has to say about this acrid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid You can buy this acrid in hardware stores and in places similar the home depot. When y'all handle hydrochloric acid, you should utilise rubber gloves and eye protection and should NOT use it in a confined area similar your dwelling or garage. There should be plenty of ventilation. Y'all should also accept a garden hose handy that you tin apply to alluvion any accidentally spilled acid with lots of h2o. Muriatic acid is a strong acid and must exist treated with respect. The full-bodied hydrochloric that y'all get at the hardware stores is rated at about 32% and gives off a stiff acidic vapor. Do Non stick you nose into the mouth of the bottle and effort and smell this. You lot volition smell enough of information technology merely pouring the full-bodied acid out of the bottle. Belongings your breath is a skilful idea. Utilize a plastic or ceramic container to clean your quartz. Plastic is much ameliorate considering it is not as breakable. Make sure you lot take a tight fitting cover for your container. Practice non use metal containers when working with this acrid. Put your quartz crystals in the container and pour in hydrochloric acrid to cover them. Because of the fumes this acid gives off, make sure yous comprehend your container. Periodically examine your quartz crystals to come across if they need to remain in the acid longer. It is not appropriate to oestrus this solution because of the fumes this will crusade. Exist Certain NOT TO USE YOUR Bare Easily AND USE EYE PROTECTION. When it looks like your quartz crystals are make clean, remove them from the acid and rinse them off with h2o. Then put them in another container of clean h2o and let them soak for an hour or ii. Soaking them overnight will not hurt them and is a good idea. Yous do this to remove whatsoever acid that may have been trapped in the cracks of the specimen. If the specimen has many cracks or is composed of a porous material, yous may take to leave the specimen in the rinse water for several days, and soak it several times in make clean water and so that all the acid has been removed from the specimen. If yous practice not completely remove the acid from your specimen, it may turn yellow at a later engagement and you will accept to repeat the acrid handling and the neutralization. When you are done yous tin can store the solution for future use or neutralize it. You will not want to store hydrochloric acid or solutions of hydrochloric acid long term in your garage or anywhere most metal. Plastic bottles of muriatic acid accept a habit of eventually groovy and leaking. The solutions tend to requite off hydrogen chloride which is hard to contain and it will rust up every scrap of fe anywhere near the stuff. I would recommend not storing it more than a week or ii if you can help it. You can apply limestone or marble chips to neutralize the acrid. When you put limestone or marble chips (calcite) in the acrid, it will bubble and barm while carbon dioxide gas is liberated. When you add together more limestone and no more bubbling happens, then the solution is neutralized and you can dispose of it. Dilute hydrochloric acid is what your tum uses to digest food. If you lot spill some acid on the flooring or your wearing apparel, just affluent the expanse or your wearable with lots of h2o and, just to be sure that the acid is gone, you can pat down the area with bicarbonate of soda. If no fizzing takes place or the fizzing stops, so you have successfully neutralized the acid. When working with this acid and accidentally spilling some on my hand or skin I will flush the area with lots of water and and then taste the surface area. If there is any acrid left on your skin, yous skin will gustatory modality sour. If it does you volition demand to wash the area some more than and perhaps pat it down with bicarbonate of soda to ensure neutralization. Tasting of other chemic reagents is definitely not recommend because they tin can exist poisoners or even deadly. Quondam chemic texts used to tell you lot what various chemicals tasted like because this was a very fast and easy mode to give y'all an thought of what chemical you had. Some chemists poisoned themselves.

8. Phosphoric Acrid
You can also use phosphoric acid to clean out iron stains, only usually the cost of this acid is greater and it takes a chip longer. I don't recommend you use this method. Sometimes using this method will crusade phosphate minerals to precipitate on your specimens, and those are often very hard to remove.

Cleaning amethyst specimens from Thunder Bay, Canada.
Chemicals tin be used to remove thin films of fe oxide minerals that are commonly present on amethyst specimens from Thunder Bay. However at this locality the iron oxide minerals can be quite thick and removing them with chemicals present chalenges non constitute on quartz from other localities. Chemicals are used to clean these specimens but it is not equally easy as cleaning specimens from other localities and a time consuming task. The reagent mixtures can include both hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid and heat. The formulas for the reagents used are proprietary and are arrived at only afterwards considerable experimentation. Since they confer an economic advantage on the miners that apply them, they ordinarily don't desire to give up the cleaning methods that take made them coin over the years. If someone would care to share detailed information about cleaning these kinds of quartz specimens we would exist delighted to chronicle them hither.

nine. Cleaning Quartz with commercially prepared reagents containing small amounts of bifluoride.
Here is a quartz cleaning technique that was suggested and documented past Mindat fellow member Nik Nikiforou that appears to be so practical and good we are presenting it here for all Mindat members. If you lot are familiar with the manner specimens await, peculiarly quartz crystals wait when they are freshly collected from a pegmatite pocket you will want to exist enlightened of this method of cleaning them, especially if you don't take whatever air annoying tools at your disposal. Even if you exercise, yous may desire to give this method a attempt. Wait at this before and afterwards image of this quartz and spodumene var. kunzite specimen below. Although the before picture is not very sharp and not taken from exactly the same position every bit the after shot, it is manifestly to encounter that the cleaning of the specimen was very effective.

"Cleaning the to a higher place specimen with Whink took me about three weeks using three complete cycles, to get the piece to where I was satisfied that I had done enough. Notation that even though most of the white stuff came off the quartz crystal, it was still extremely "luster challenged" after cleaning. Notwithstanding, I am quite pleased with the results (although I have also messed up a few pieces equally well).

Although you can probably prepare a like reagent using ammonium hydrogen fluorite (ammonium bifluoride, a white poisonous powder) nosotros would recommend y'all apply a commercially prepared reagent called Whink. This is one that should hands be obtainable here in the United States. In that location are probably others. Perchance someone volition come forward with a formula and reagent training procedure for a similar reagent, but till then, this one will do well. For those of you in strange countries who may not accept access to this particular brand of bifluoride reagent I would advise y'all to ask or pay an industrial chemist to whip upward a formula for one that you tin can use and perhaps even sell to others that may want to clean their quartz specimens. But for now, lets listen to what Nik Nikiforou says:

I've had good results removing the silicate "white stuff" from Quartz and other minerals using an easily obtained product called Whink Rust Stain Remover. Information technology is a liquid and comes in a brown plastic bottle in 6,10,16 & 32 oz sizes and tin be bought in many hardware stores and or on line. Before I go whatsoever further you lot need to know that this product contains two% to 3% hydrofluoric acid, i of, if not THE most corrosive acids known, and farthermost safety precautions need to be taken, including working with it Simply OUTDOORS, wearing SAFETY GOGGLES and chemical resistant GLOVES. You must NOT let the liquid bear on your skin and you must non breath the fumes. I can't stress that plenty.

Having said that, I apply information technology by putting the specimen to be cleaned in a LOOSELY covered plastic container (not drinking glass equally it will swallow through glass!), pouring enough of the liquid in to embrace the specimen, and keeping it out in the sunday for several days or longer. If I need to procedure a large slice I will dilute it with enough water to embrace the specimen, although this volition prolong the amount of time needed for it to work. I volition check it every couple of days by gently scraping at the white stuff to see if it has begun to soften. At that point I volition remove it from the Whink and soak it in h2o for a few days, irresolute the water daily, in gild to remove any remaining HF, peculiarly if the piece is at all porous. I and so gently scrape off as much of the stuff as I tin with a dental tool or knife, and if the piece can physically stand up to it, hit it with the h2o gun. I oft have to REPEAT this process two or three times (Whink handling, water soak, mechanical removal) to get the last of the white stuff off. A lot of work, then it only pays to do this with better pieces.

CAVEATS:
ane. This is not the cheapest manner to use HF - you can get more blindside for your buck by using HF obtained from chemical supply houses, which is much more concentrated and can be diluted to your needs. This is NOT an choice for me or for well-nigh collectors - I have seen photos of the severe tissue damage caused by even short exposures to this acid and don't desire it anywhere near me.

2. Whink can DULL the shine on Quartz and other silicates if used for a prolonged amount of fourth dimension. Information technology will likewise destroy some other minerals (don't apply it on Apatite!), and it will slowly begin to etch Feldspars and Micas. Do some research or test on lesser pieces first.

three. Getting the white stuff off ofttimes does Non better the appearance of the specimen. In my experience, about crystal faces that are nether the white stuff tend to be dull anyway; this is one of the reasons that the white stuff is and so tenaciously attached to the crystal as it has lots of microsurfaces to "get a grip" on.

iv. I've had a couple of cases where the specimen either lost some crystals or came apart because the "white stuff" was actually holding it together. Yous need to closely examine your specimen to gauge if this is likely to happen.

If you lot programme on using Whink Please TAKE THE PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS!
[Nik Nikiforou 2009]

In Brazil, the dealers who frequently purchase and sell quartz crystals use a commercial cleaning liquid called Chispas which derives its cleaning effect from ammonium bi fluoride and other ingredients. It is used to make clean fe stains from the quartz crystals and they credit it with also making the quartz brighter and this may be the consequence of the weak HF solution removing very micorcrystalline quartz from the surface of the quartz crystals. But I am not certain near this. I have seen information technology used in Rio Grande do Sul among the producers of amethyst specimens to brand amethyst crystals bright and clean, and have been told that if the amethyst is left too long in Chispas, especially fresh Chispas, it will tiresome the amethyst crystals. I have seen specimens of amethyst where the amethyst crystals are still bright and shiny, but the underlying agate has been turned white on the outside and was told this was the result of even a short cleaning in Chispas. The fluorine in the solution attacked the chalcedony/agate very quickly compared to the crystallized amethyst. At that place are a number of commercial cleaning products that use bifluoride in their brand-upwards; among these are those used on a regular basis in commercial car washes. Solutions of ammonium bifluoride should exist neutralized by dumping marble or limestone chips into the solution. This will cause bubbling and a white precipitate of calcium fluoride (fluorite). To be certain the neutralizing reaction has been complete, go along adding marble or limestone chips till no more bubbling occurs. This may take a while.

10. Peradventure cleaning and or removing quartz with Hydrofluoric Acid (HF)
I am not going to tell yous how to use this terrible chemic, only I volition tell you some things about it that I hope may persuade you lot non to effort to apply it. I'll also tell you almost some of the things it can and cannot do. The danger involved in using this acid is so groovy that even the experts here on Mindat recommend that you not use it. Further there is an breezy policy here on Mindat, that the experts will not tell people on the message board how to use this acid. There are a few uses for it that cannot exist replaced with less dangerous chemicals and if you actually need to use HF for those purposes, then you need to discover someone who knows how to handle HF. An erstwhile chemist or chemistry teacher volition practise nicely; have him/her train you lot in how to employ this reagent safely. To endeavour and teach you about this acid past writing is not something I will willingly exercise. It would be inviting all kinds of problem, particularly in this litigious society.

Hydrofluoric acid is basically the poisonous gas hydrogen fluoride, dissolved in h2o. In its concentrated form it is a clear liquid that cannot exist stored in drinking glass because information technology volition dissolve the container. I take been told, that in old chemical science labs information technology used to be shop in bottles made of alkane series. This was before the advent of modern plastic containers. In small quantities it now comes in bottles made of thick plastics like polypropylene. When yous open the bottle the gas will get-go to escape and on a humid mean solar day you tin can see it. It will rise up a little like steam, and let me clinch you lot that you really exercise not want to breathe the stuff. So if the day is not humid, and yous do non have a fume hood to get rid of the fumes from the HF, you lot really tin't tell if you are going to exhale any of the stuff untill it is too late. A bit probably won't kill you lot, merely if you get a whiff of it, you will run for cover. Even the most draconian of us that have used this reagent many times treat this animate being with respect. That is every bit far down that route as I am going to take you. Let me also say that many people, fifty-fifty those trained in chemistry accept been injured curt and long term past this chemical. It can do nasty things to your trunk. If in spite of what I have said here, you persist in trying to use HF whatever else yous do, go to Wikipedia on the net and read about the acrid and the attendant dangers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid. The terrible effects caused past contact with this chemic have been known for more than 100 years. 6 drops will impale a dog. http://lateralscience.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/little-domestic dog-hydrofluoric-acid.html

All that being said, if you want to remove quartz or other silica containing minerals from effectually gold, silver or other minerals that are non affected by HF, then there may be no other choice. In a few cases, quartz crystals may exist coated with a thin druse of secondary micro quartz crystals that can possibly be dislodged by using hydrofluoric acid. To dissolve, or partially dissolve the quartz from around gold, silver, etc y'all need to use fairly full-bodied HF and then the procedure will exist slow, a twenty-four hours or two or more, depending upon on how much yous want to remove. Massive quartz (bull quartz), chalcedony and opal are attacked much more quickly than the surface of regular quartz crystals. To dissolve a well-formed quartz crystal with room temperature HF can accept several days, and it does not shine the quartz and brand it look shiny similar information technology will regular glass, merely rather jagged and dull. I take seen some rather drab Japan police twined quartz from Washington Camp, Arizona treated in fairly concentrated HF for several hours with the surprising event that the very fine drusy quartz that was giving a matte terminate to the twins was more often than not removed and the surfaces left shiny. We forgot about putting them in the acid and went back subsequently about four hours to find this surprising result. I don't think we would take had the nerve to go out them in that long if we had remembered sooner that they were in the HF. Some of the crystals had little cracks in them, and though the HF left the surface of the quartz crystals shiny, it did attack information technology a bit along the edges of the cracks and information technology left picayune white trails along the cracks. My advice is that unless the quartz you lot are trying to clean is really exceptional, don't try and clean it with HF. It merely is non worth the cost and the risk to your health. The last quote I got from a chemical company for a gallon of HF was something over $100 dollars. If you really need to use HF you can read various articles and comments on line. I of them is given here: http://world wide web.minsocam.org/ammin/AM46/AM46_1498.pdf

Sodium Hydroxide
Alfredo Petrov has had success in cleaning coatings of scorodite from Japan law quartz twins from Kami, Bolivia. These were clusters of Japan law twins. He placed the quartz in a full-bodied solution of sodium hydroxide. This turned the scorodite into goethite, which could then be removed with Waller solution, oxalic acid or muriatic acid. You probably don't desire to leave the quartz in a stiff lye (sodium hydroxide) solution for very long because quartz is slowly soluble in this reagent at room temperature. Potent solutions of sodium hydroxide are very corrosive and will basically dissolve your pare by turning the fat in your skin into soap. Wear plastic gloves when treatment this textile. You can neutralize lye solutions with vinegar or hydrochloric acid.

Hydrogen Peroxide
Sometimes, you tin can apply hydrogen peroxide to remove certain black manganese minerals like todorokite from quartz crystals. Some people take reported success in removing organic materials such equally lichen, clay minerals ore fine grained minerals from quartz and other minerals with the employ of hydrogen peroxide solutions. When the solution reacts with the manganese minerals it generates bubbles of oxygen gas. Reagent grade hydrogen peroxide tin can react violently with things similar asphalt. Before using full-bodied hydrogen peroxide be sure you really know what you are doing. Nosotros have had enough initial success in removing clay from Chinese azurite using a standard weak solution of hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach quality) that nosotros are going to experiment more with this reagent. It is not articulate just what hydrogen peroxide does in loosening impacted clay and other fine grained materials, simply it has a salutatory effect. I have not had much experience using this reagent on quartz, so whatsoever aid from those more knowledgeable than I will exist welcomed. The results of using this reagent on manganese oxides can exist very dramatic. Yous drop the specimen into the solution and when the bubbles clear away in a minute or 2, the specimen is magically clean with all the blackness manganese oxide gone. I was once able in just a few minutes to make clean many specimens of prehnite casts after laumontite that appeared to be hopelessly covered with blackness todorokite. It was similar magic.

When working with chemicals like those above, y'all should not mix the different solutions together. This will sometimes produce unwelcome precipitates or react in ways that will be unwelcome or dangerous.

Nosotros would like to solicit Mindaters, who have had experience with cleaning quartz of dissimilar kinds, to share their experiences with various chemicals past emailing us so we can brand this article more than comprehensive and useful. If there is something you don't sympathise or want explained further, post a annotation on the board beneath and you lot will almost certainly exist able to get further help. I take been chosen an expert at present and then but just when I start to experience a little smug, an old friend reminds me that an ex is a has been and a spurt is a drip under force per unit area.

Stone Currier
Reviewed and proofread by George Holloway

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