[Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid

[Erich Kern]

I know NH4HF2 as ammonium bifluoride and have used it for years to remove silicate crusts from fluorite specimens. I wouldn't use hydrofluoric acid under any circumstances, very nasty stuff, but ammonium bifluoride is relatively safe. I've put my hand in a solution for a few seconds on occasion, but always have a bucket of fresh water at hand to rinse off immediately. The only protection I use are safety glasses, since as Rik says, you could lose an eye if the splash is copious enough. Always have fresh water at hand, in a bucket or the kitchen fawcet to rinse with, even when using milder acids like HCL. No, I'm not a trained professional chemist, but have learned by experience. 

BTW, if you wet your hand with fresh water before putting it in an acid solution, it helps a great deal to minimise skin irritation.

Erich Kern
Murrieta, Calif. 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Rik Dillen 
To: 'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors' 
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 7:11 AM
Subject: RE: [Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid


Ammonium hydrogen fluoride (NH4)HF2 or sodium hydrogen fluoride are somewhat milder, but even those are extremely
harmful substances that provoke bad burning wounds and if a drop touches the eye it can be lost in seconds !
All these products should be used only by trained professional chemists !
Greetings,

Rik DILLEN 
Doornstraat 15, B-9170 Sint-Gillis-Waas 
Belgium 
E-mail rik.dillen at skynet.be 
Homepage : http://users.skynet.be/rik.dillen 

MINERANT 2008 - 26-27 April 2008
Bouwcentrum (Antwerp Expo)
Jan Van Rijswijcklaan 191 Antwerpen 
http://www.minerant.org/mka/minerantnl.html 
Mineral collector's page http://www.minerant.org/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Sicree, Andrew,
Ph.D.
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 3:57 PM
To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
Subject: [Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid


I was wondering if anyone knew of any ways
to get rid of quartz (such as in encrustations) 
without use of hydrofluoric acid.

Andy Sicree


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Andrew A. Sicree, Ph.D. 
P. O. Box 10664 
State College PA 16805 
(814) 867-6263 
sicree at verizon.net 

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