Oroblanco
Rhenium Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2005
- Messages
- 7,841
- Reaction score
- 9,868
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- DAKOTA TERRITORY
- Detector(s) used
- Tesoro Lobo Supertraq, (95%) Garrett Scorpion (5%)
Bob,
I have had some Feather River (California) gold that ran almost 98% pure. No additives, no preservatives!
Frank,
I have seen nuggets that are about impossible to tell are fakes. Simple to make too. Say I want to fake some nice Chocolate Mountains (California) nuggets (approx 65% gold, 20% silver, 10% copper, 5% lead). I start by mathematically figuring out what I need to have. Pure Gold, Pure Silver, Pure Copper, Pure Lead. I will round things off for simplicity. 65 ounces of gold, 20 ounces silver, etc etc etc. Smelt them together, and we have a perfect Chocolate Mountain Natural Gold Alloy. Pour it into a mold, and let cool. Fill up a 5gal bucket with ice and water. Wait till its as cold as it is going to get. Place the bucket on the floor underneath a bench vise. Place the bar in the vise, then hit it with a MAP Gas or Oxy-Acetylene Torch. Slowly melt it and let the globs of molten gold hit the ice water, and by the time that gold hits the bottom of the bucket, it looks as natural as you can get.
Mike
I don't know Mike, it sounds like an easy process but not so sure it would look right. I have a couple of "nugget" rings with fake nuggets, made by a jeweler, and they just don't look right. They don't look right to the eye even without a magnifying glass, compared with the genuine article. Have you tried your process and compared the result with real (Chocolate mtn range example) nuggets? Maybe it would work, or maybe they would not look quite right either?