refined metalic silver from fixer

Hi, I would like to make a ring for my girlfriend from the silver that came off from our pictures. Would it be possible? I know a good goldsmith but noene that can refine that black stuff. Many thanks!

r

you should have no problem, if you're gonna married in 2038.i

it's my understanding it'll take you that much time to accumulate enough silver for the ring.

jvo

In Romania, precious metals have a special regime.
Not everyone can recover precious metals.
In negative films b&w there is 0.120 g silver / meter of virgin film.
If exposed and developed it may remain about 0.050 g silver / meter.
If you burn this film, you will have about 0.050 g in ash.
Approximately 2 to 4 g of Ag / l are in the used fixation solution.
There are companies that are taking silver solutions for recovery.

George

there's about 1/4 oz of silver in super saturated fixer. in order to turn it into metalic silver it has to be put in
a crucible and the impurities burned off ( under a hood cause its toxic ) or through some chemical method
you're better off using your extracted silver from your fixers and trading for $$ through a refiner ..
you'll get about 70% of the spot price*the weight you cash in.
or better yet, buy silver on the commodity market ( you can buy 1oz bars )
silver is about about $16-16.50 / troy oz ( artifically depressed if you talk to traders ... because of
unregulated dumping and re-buying by large investment firms ). you can take the silver bar to your
metal / smith to make your ring... i'd suggest the bar, unless you find sterling jewelry or coins
you don't mind cashing in, usually coins or jewels have sentimental or historic value .. bars don't.

have fun !

There are two ways to get the silver out of saturated fixer:

1. reducing the silver ions back to metallic silver. This is typically done with steel wool or by adding reducing agents. The silver precipitate will likely be covered with Silver Sulfide and probably some other contaminants.
2. forming an insoluble silver salt, such as Silver Iodide or Ag-PMT.

Both methods require you to get rid of highly insoluble contaminant, and I'm not sure whether there are methods for doing this at home safely.

I have precipitated silver from fixer in a convoluted and probably not cost effective way: Potassium Iodide is added to the used fixer solution and Silver Iodide precipitates. This is then filtered and washed and this precipitate is added to a developer solution. Spent print developer is fine. Considering that these steps were done in light, this will develop Silver Iodide to silver, which you can be washed and filtered. This will look like a very dark gray powder.

Just fyi typically silver is a poor material for a ring. While they do sell them, I was recommended against buying a silver ring by a jewellery as they said they have a strong tendency to bend and distort with daily wear. I personally love silver and the way it looks but pick up one dumbbell with it on and you have an oval rather than a ring. Best of luck though!

Simple 'in house' silver recovery..

I have taken to a simple method of recovering silver from my used fixer
I pour all my used fixer into a large carboy and add any left-over but not quite 'dead' film or paper developer screw the top 'securely' and shake the H*ll out of it.. lat it stand under the bench.
a fe daysI syphon off the clear 'mixture' and add more used fixer.. followed by another 'dose of used but not 'dead' film or paper developer shake well and let 'stand'. Eventually, you will get a few inches of a precipitate at the bottom of the carboy. Carefully... syphon off as much of the 'clear' liquid (I use a glass tubing with rubber at the 'mouth' end) and without 'disturbing' the precipitate remove the clear liquid for disposal.
This may be 'repeated' quite a few times.
a few weeks (or months.. depending on how often you print and or develop film) I add clean water..shake... let settle... re-wash... let it settle... syphon off...and rewash a few more times

I will then add some more 'clean' water'... syphon off... add more clean water shake and carefully
filter that which I can gently pour out of the carboy though clean filter paper to collect the 'dust"
which dried and 'scraped' into a clean recepticle and taken to a friendly jewellery 'repair shop'
(or unversity/college lab) for melting down and then allowed to cool to a 'blob of 're-useable pure siiver.
I was informed a number of years ago that the black powder silver is probably the purest form of
metallic silver you can get

Ken

Even if you get enough spent fixer to make it, she won't be wearing it once she sees how it discolours her finger.

narigas2006 said:

Hi, I would like to make a ring for my girlfriend from the silver that came off from our pictures. Would it be possible? I know a good goldsmith but noene that can refine that black stuff. Many thanks!

r

Click to expand...

That is a very romantic thought..... Good Luck To You.

FWIW....... i think White Gold is the best "Silver" that God ever made.
It is also the prettiest "Gold".