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diamond cleaning, cleaning rough diamonds
rrhobdy
post Jan 12 2015, 01:42 PM
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Hydrofluoric Acid no longer available in stores or on sale in USA on-line. Fed Govt controls it like dangerous drugs. Unless you are working in a commercial lab or at university lab with environmental safeguards, you wont be able to obtain it.

What would be a good alternative to clean diamonds with to remove surface dirt and attachments? I've got about 40 diamonds from the State Line District to clean up that were panned out of the local creeks. They are not shiny smooth like the one's

I've found from Crater of Diamonds. In fact, at first glance you would think they were a piece of clear quartz until you put them under microscope and perform scratch test on corundum crystal. They all tested 3.5 for specific gravity, but they do not glow

blue under uv, but they do color change and glow faintly red. (which is another color that diamonds glow). They do test positive on a diamond tester. And yes, I am heading back to pan for more come July. The first trip was just one days effort!

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CP
post Jan 12 2015, 02:12 PM
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Hi rrhobdy and welcome to the forums,

What might still available and possibly work for that would be some household rust stain removers or rim and tire cleaners, some of which use diluted hydrofluoric acid as a component in it's products.

Sounds like you did quite well on your one day of panning for sure, nice work!
Good luck on the diamond cleaning project, we'd all like to see some pics of those finds later too.


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Caveman
post Jan 12 2015, 04:49 PM
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It looks like you can buy it from Grainger -

http://www.grainger.com/search?gclid=CLK3m...0150112224523:s

and from Cole Palmer:

http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/Hydroflu...9_3/EW-89000-85

Good Luck!


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MikeS
post Jan 12 2015, 04:49 PM
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Welcome rrhobdy! 40 diamonds in one day is darn good. Did any of them turn out to be gem quality "cutters"?


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Rocket
post Jan 21 2015, 05:41 PM
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Congrats on the diamond prospecting. Now that you have some, what's the process to turn them into dollars? And I am still curious how much material you had to sift through (estimated yardage)?

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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 08:57 AM
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QUOTE (MikeS @ Jan 12 2015, 05:49 PM) *
Welcome rrhobdy! 40 diamonds in one day is darn good. Did any of them turn out to be gem quality "cutters"?





Actually 3 of them will probably be cutters... The largest one, which is 4.92cts (2nd largest reported placer diamond in Colorado) will be cut into 3 pieces, approx. 3/4ct, 1/4ct, 1/4ct, and is flawless, colorless. The other 2 are about .30cts each, and are also flawless and colorless. The rest are too small, or have too many flaws and inclusions. Note: I just cleaned out my car, preparing for a ski trip, and found 2 more diamonds while vacuuming. Must have spilled out of the buckets of sand/gravel I took home to pan out later. The largest was .15ct and a pretty little sparkler. I will probably will have it mounted uncut, as the center of a cross, for my wife. That makes my total now of 42 diamonds. I seem to have found a "honey hole." You prospect for diamonds much like you do for gold. Diamonds are heavy, and will settle out in the streams just like gold will. So study the area you want to look on the internet, particularly using sat maps, for surface anomalies such as unusual clearings or meadows in the forests, and pan any drainages out of those areas, you will get lucky like me. I spent about 3-4 hours sluicing a creek in likely area, and then had to leave due to a thunderstorm. While leaving, stopped along roadside downstream, and grabbed a quick 3 bucket fulls of sand/gravel from the creek. Those buckets are where I got most of the diamonds. The creek had emptied out of a narrow canyon onto a little flat valley. I dug the sand bar where the stream velocity suddenly slowed. That's the secret to finding a "honey hole."

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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 09:13 AM
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QUOTE (Rocket @ Jan 21 2015, 06:41 PM) *
Congrats on the diamond prospecting. Now that you have some, what's the process to turn them into dollars? And I am still curious how much material you had to sift through (estimated yardage)?





For one day, I probably sluiced about 1 cubic yd. I then filled 3 5gal pails to take home with me for later panning...I live in NC and left for home the next day. When panning, I use a sieve pan, much like a fine mesh classifier...about the same as a window screen in size mesh. Pan by shaking up and down then side to side under calm water. The heavies will settle to the bottom with the water classifying the material, and the lighter material will slosh over the sides. When you work it down to about 1/4 the amount you started with, you take it out of the water, drain it, and then flip upside down on flat surface that is larger than the pan. Then slowly eyeball the material as you section it and spread it out by sections, looking for possible diamonds. If you are doing it right, any large diamonds will show up on top in the center of the surface after you flip the pan to empty it. Or you can use regular gold pan. The diamonds will remain in your pan with the black sand, plus you may find gold at the same time. Look for garnets, peridot, and chrome diopside, as indicators that you are in a diamond area, in your pan.

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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 09:15 AM
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QUOTE (ColoradoProspector @ Jan 12 2015, 03:12 PM) *
Hi rrhobdy and welcome to the forums, What might still available and possibly work for that would be some household rust stain removers or rim and tire cleaners, some of which use diluted hydrofluoric acid as a component in it's products. Sounds like you did quite well on your one day of panning for sure, nice work! Good luck on the diamond cleaning project, we'd all like to see some pics of those finds later too.





As soon as I figure out how to store and retrieve fotos on my new AmScope microscope, I'll upload some.

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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 11:47 AM
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Attached ImageAttached Image
QUOTE (rrhobdy @ Jan 22 2015, 10:15 AM) *
As soon as I figure out how to store and retrieve fotos on my new AmScope microscope, I'll upload some.





Figured out how to upload fotos...


Attached image(s)
Attached Image Attached Image
 
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Diamond Digger
post Jan 22 2015, 12:20 PM
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Hi,
If you failed to get hold of Hydrofluoric acid then you can use Sulfuric acid but you have to cook (Heat) the diamonds in the fluid for at least one day, this also mean you need a contained environment sealed closed behind Plexiglas with an extractor fan suitable to handle the toxic fumes... absolutely not the way to go. Very expensive to build such a unit.

Try the two links above and get the real stuff.
DD
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prospector
post Jan 22 2015, 05:48 PM
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QUOTE (rrhobdy @ Jan 22 2015, 10:47 AM) *
Attached ImageAttached Image Figured out how to upload fotos...


wow very nice find i am always up in and around that area would you be willing to tell me the creek name you were in or one near by ?? just curious thanks




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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 07:13 PM
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QUOTE (Diamond Digger @ Jan 22 2015, 01:20 PM) *
Hi, If you failed to get hold of Hydrofluoric acid then you can use Sulfuric acid but you have to cook (Heat) the diamonds in the fluid for at least one day, this also mean you need a contained environment sealed closed behind Plexiglas with an extractor fan suitable to handle the toxic fumes... absolutely not the way to go. Very expensive to build such a unit. Try the two links above and get the real stuff. DD





I finally found some stuff at Walmart... It's called WHINK, and its made for removal of rust stains. None of the lime removing stuff has hydrofluoric acid, but this does as one of its ingredients. And only about $5.00 a bottle.

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rrhobdy
post Jan 22 2015, 07:33 PM
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QUOTE (prospector @ Jan 22 2015, 06:48 PM) *
wow very nice find i am always up in and around that area would you be willing to tell me the creek name you were in or one near by ?? just curious thanks





I'd love to tell where the "honey hole" is, but I want to go back this summer and work it again. It is in the State Line District. Accessable by 4x4, and like most of that area, is surrounded by private property adjacent to Roosevelt National Forest. I did get permission from the property owner. The area I worked had only small stuff except for the large fragment. I am going to try the Wyoming side of the border. Not all of the drainage out of Kelsey Lake was into Rabbit creek. Some of it drained north towards Laramie. Gonna check it out on some of the dry creeks near Tye Siding, and bringing my own water for panning. That whole area (before it was uplifted) drained northward. Another area I am going to check is Dale creek. I located a new kimberlite pipe adjacent to it, about a mile east of the Moen Ranch. Dan Hausel can give you more clues where to look. The Red Feather Lakes region is also accessible still by road, and there are about a dozen anomalies that show up on sat map just NE, with a couple of good creeks to work that are on forest land and not locked gates. Those have tested to have diamonds in them. You might bump into me up there in July. I'll be driving a black envoy with 2 wiener dogs for protection. Good luck prospecting.

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prospector
post Jan 22 2015, 08:13 PM
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QUOTE (rrhobdy @ Jan 22 2015, 06:33 PM) *
I'd love to tell where the "honey hole" is, but I want to go back this summer and work it again. It is in the State Line District. Accessable by 4x4, and like most of that area, is surrounded by private property adjacent to Roosevelt National Forest. I did get permission from the property owner. The area I worked had only small stuff except for the large fragment. I am going to try the Wyoming side of the border. Not all of the drainage out of Kelsey Lake was into Rabbit creek. Some of it drained north towards Laramie. Gonna check it out on some of the dry creeks near Tye Siding, and bringing my own water for panning. That whole area (before it was uplifted) drained northward. Another area I am going to check is Dale creek. I located a new kimberlite pipe adjacent to it, about a mile east of the Moen Ranch. Dan Hausel can give you more clues where to look. The Red Feather Lakes region is also accessible still by road, and there are about a dozen anomalies that show up on sat map just NE, with a couple of good creeks to work that are on forest land and not locked gates. Those have tested to have diamonds in them. You might bump into me up there in July. I'll be driving a black envoy with 2 wiener dogs for protection. Good luck prospecting.


Ride on thanks for the help. I live right in that area not to sound like i know it all but i know what im looking for thanks to the readings of dan h i have a very nice vile of garnets but still cant identify any diamonds i bet i have ran one out of my sluice in the past. I am working on the private property owners permission as well but its kind of hard alot of stubborn people out there. And come july i hope to see or hear from you i read you said to dig deep like gold would you recemnd sieving them or sluice ? Also have you ever seen a saruka? Its like a diamond sieve ?
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