[Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid

[Tim Fisher]

I have been thinking of booking Bob Jackson's Rock Candy mine trip 
(Grand Forks, BC) for a few years now, so out of curiosity, is the 
fluorite from there typically coated with quartz? Would I need this 
stuff to clean it if I did collect there?

Interesting, but irrelevant: The mine is on Big Rock Candy Mountain, 
those of you who have seen the the Coen Bros' "O Brother Where Art 
Thou" recognize the song by famous hobo Harry McClintock (if you were 
paying attention lol) which he recorded in 1928 and had been singing 
since 1897 according to Wiki. I just answered my own question about 
which came first, the mountain or the song, (thanks Wiki lol), since 
the mine was developed in the 1920s, so the miners obviously were 
familiar with the song. I love the references to cigarette trees, 
streams of alcohol, lake of whiskey, rubber-toothed bulldogs, the tin 
jail, etc., that greet presumably deceased hobos in the song. And 
"where they hung the guy that invented work" is one of my all time 
favorite song lyrics :)

At 12:36 AM 12/25/2007, you wrote:


>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
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>
>Andrew A. Sicree, Ph.D.
>P. O. Box 10664
>State College PA 16805
>(814) 867-6263
>sicree at verizon.net
>
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Tim Fisher
Ore-ROCK-On!
Email address at http://OreRockOn.com