Some more oldies

[LongJohnSilver1]

Hit the same spot again and turned some more old gold. I think the stone is an opal? I'm not sure I'll be able to clean off the crud and maintain the opal..

 

[BlackBeardNewEngland]

Looks like they were under for 50 years congrats!

 

[hoser]

Boy, they are crusted up. What process do you use to get them clean. Congrats on the old gold.

 

[FelixtheCat]

Can't wait to see the after pictures. That opal ring should be stunning!

 

[Tinhorn3]

ahhh - tho's are fakes ---- Man Oh Man talk about GREAT

 

[Kansashunter]

Yep, that opal ring is cool! Congrats

 

[OBN]

Great examples of damaged gold too. The saltwater and harsh conditions at that beach, no doubt, are hard on gold.

I've got a few spots that the old gold comes up bad, one has a lot of iron in the mix and the gold comes up rusty, even attached to the gold. Nothing as bad as yours where the impurities mixed with the gold makes them create a stalagmite.

And no doubt, hands of a pirate!

 

[CalReg]

Yeah, those rings look like they've been in the ground for a while...sweet! Congrats!

 

[metaladdict]

Nice wrinkly fingers!

 

[cellrdwellr]

Definitely looks like opal, and really unique with the copper oxide leeching out behind it. Another fantastic hunt, congrats!

 

[LongJohnSilver1]

Boy, they are crusted up. What process do you use to get them clean. Congrats on the old gold.

I use CLR. The solder joints go but there's no stopping that on such old pieces

 

[LongJohnSilver1]

Great examples of damaged gold too. The saltwater and harsh conditions at that beach, no doubt, are hard on gold.

I've got a few spots that the old gold comes up bad, one has a lot of iron in the mix and the gold comes up rusty, even attached to the gold. Nothing as bad as yours where the impurities mixed with the gold makes them create a stalagmite.

And no doubt, hands of a pirate!

There's a few things that contribute to it. Our gold can be as low as 9k which makes a difference vs even 10k, and as you observed iron can actually precipitate onto the gold. I find that interesting because in the gold fields the oppersite is known to happen - when gold deposits formed naturally they typically precipitate out onto iron formations.

 

[LongJohnSilver1]

So I haven't completely cleaned it, but good enough for my purposes. Unfortunately it looks like the opal has lost it's colour. I've seen this before with triplets, that thin slice of opal doesn't survive being removed from salt water. Jut in case anyone was wondering the hallmark on the plain band is birmingham assay office, year letter is 1900. So there's a very good chance that ring was down there for 100 years.

 

[BlackBeardNewEngland]

Looks great those little bits of corrosion give them character

 

[LongJohnSilver1]

Looks great those little bits of corrosion give them character

Yeah I kind of like them with the patina. It's hard to tell in the photo but it gives them a kind of depth to the lustre. 18ct gets a really nice luster to it as well if it's in the salt water for decades.
This is how they look straight out of the CLR. I couldn't do too much to the opal ring because I was afraid of damaging it, not that it mattered in the end. To restore the full shine I could polish them with a gold polishing cloth.

 

[FelixtheCat]

Is there no polishing that can be done to get the opal back to life?

 

[LongJohnSilver1]

Is there no polishing that can be done to get the opal back to life?

No the problem as I understand it, opal is porous. The play of colour in an opal is literally just water trapped in the stone, and I think the salt water penetrates the stone. Not a problem when it's wet, but when it dries out it seems to dull the opal. With a solid opal you can polish out the dulled top layer, but I think this is a thing called a triplet where it's a thin slice of opal sandwiched between a colourless opal layer and a clear top layer. There's no meat to the opal polish.
Since this is set in a 9k ring, I'd say it wasn't an expensive opal