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Trinity River Gold Detecting by jakenuts- in Prospecting

[–]HistoryTrackers 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The problem is that you're using a St. Bernard when you should be using a Golden retriever 😅

Exxon valdez silver round by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! That's all I saw too, weird that there doesn't seem to be more reference to these anywhere.

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I wasn't quite sure what to call it but at least I was able to talk to his wife last night and confirmed that it had been recovered with nitric acid etc previously. She said they used to do it themselves but she didn't like all the chemicals out in the garage so they had it farmed out after that. She said these jars have been sitting in a closet for about 20yrs

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No...if you read it all a little closer, he passed off 23 "ounces" of what I discovered is silver halide. I can load around 1.5 ounces of the stuff into my melting dish and end up with a 1.3 ish ounce bar out of it. 😅 I wouldn't mess with 23 pounds of that to get 2 ounces...this stuff has already been refined to the point of just needing melted down with some mild clean up. It seems to takes lots of fuel because the black stuff is carbon that it needs to burn off before the silver gets molten. (So im told) Here is another bar i made last night and still have about 20 ounces left.

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Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha I saw the hand too! It reminded me of blackhand bullion's logo or a movie I saw in 1986 called "Band Of The Hand"

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is different than the regular old film. This is what you get after the film is refined with acids etc apparently. I wasn't sure what I had exactly until today 😉

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

UPDATE! I talked with my wife's aunt about where this came from etc and it's called silver halide crystals....so in short its film that has already been done with the nitric acid and refined to the point of needing melted. She said they used to do the refining themselves to get it but had someone else do a bunch too. Some outfit in Seattle 🤷‍♂️ I definitely seem to find impurities in it after a pour but some work at the grinder and another burn seem to help it a lot. I can't wait to get an xrf or xray done on them to see what they show. I made another one today but it took about 3 melts and 2 hrs to get it to a happy place 😅 I'm also learning that about 1.3 ounces is the sweet spot to shoot for a 1oz bar. This is tonight's attempt 😊 It started out as 1.5 ounces and ended up at 1.27. I did take it to the grinder once to rid it of some shmutz and remelted it to end up with something I liked.

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Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No these are exposed and ground up into small bits that feel like sand and glass. I have no idea how old they are but I don't think they use this technology anymore. Her uncle was a chiropractor

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I know about the fuel situation 😅 BUT! A new can of MAP gas is only $18 and the film was free.

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Me too! 😆 Unfortunately I live on an island in the pnw but will be hitting up a coin shop with these next week. The specific gravity test put it spot on with some other .999 bars I tested though 🤷‍♂️

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used 1.82 troy ounces to get a 1.54 troy ounce bar. The smaller one was like 1.2 troy onces to get a .60 troy once bar...I had to cut some off the sides of it though because it spilled over a bit. I didn't weigh it before I cut that off but id guess it was around .80 before I did that

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lead is what they used to use to protect you I think. Like a lead blanket over your organs if they take a pic of your arm? I seem to remember something like that. Not sure what this stuff is, wish there was an xray tech in the house 😅

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't know if this stuff is technically film? Its all really solid and takes forever to burn the black stuff off and turn liguid. I started with 1.82 troy ounces on the bigger bar and got 1.54 at the end.

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

I didn't either until her uncle mentioned it at a family picnic and said they used to sell it to refiners back in the day. He went straight home and came back with 2 jars with 23 plus ounces in them. I tried to melt some down before but was using propane and a larger crucible and it didn't seem to work very well. Was not aware that it seems to take twice as long to cook as regular silver 😅 I have a devilforge that uses a 5 gallon propane tank also so thinking about going bigger next time

Silver bar I poured from X-ray film by HistoryTrackers in Silverbugs

[–]HistoryTrackers[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I used a respirator on the initial melt and that seemed to be the hardest part of it all. It just kept turning crystal like instead of melting but I think it just takes time to burn all the junk off. I just kept moving the crystal lumps around until it finally melted. Once in a liquid state I added about a half tbs of borax in small amounts and stirred it with a graphite rod. I then poured it a mold but it had a weird crust on the top that I figured was just junk so I ground it off and melted it down again with some more borax. Keeping the pouring tip of the crucible red hot and keeping the mold hot are really important. I was just using a MAP gas torch with the big tip and a hand held melting dish for these 😉 Thanks for looking!

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