New question 2

[Qrt.S]

If so, I rest my case. I take these things serious. This forum is not the right place to pull a leg.

[JBA]

Hello,

You need to be sure to scrape deep enough, but also over a reasonably wide area.

Come, come, Qrt.s, surely you can see that JBA is pulling our legs. I'm sure he is only too aware that no one with an iota of appreciation of the silversmith's craft would ever resort to using such philistine methods.

Bassett

If the piece was genuinely hand made by a master craftsman then there's little need to test it at all!

Most things people actually need to test for purity are poor quality machine made junk, and you can scrape the hell out of that stuff for all I care! :P

[JBA]

This is what I said and the test is still not 100% proof. What the acid test actually tells you with certainty is that it is not silver and nothing else.

You should never trust the acid test for the following reason:

Let's assume that the object to be tested is an electroplated object or a silver plated object in general. That means that there is a thin 100% silver layer on it, but we don't know that yet. The the testing person makes a light scratch for the acid test. What will happen is that the test shows red i.e. high purity silver!!!! Of course it does because the layer is silver! but the base metal something else. In order to get a somehow reliable result, the scratch must be deep enough and reach the base metal. In most cases that scratch would demolish the object.

This is the problem!

I assume what you mean by this, is that you already stated (albeit in a different thread) what I said, and so I should not have posted.

I think my post went in to a bit more detail than your statement. I also think your statement was in a thread, most of which was completely irrelevant to the subject at hand, and that most people wouldn't click forward and read the whole thing.

Anyway, this is all rather uneccessary negative energy don't you think? I'm sure a bit of repetition in a thread won't actually keep you up at night. Or will it!?

[oel]

Hi All,
Acid test done by Assay office in combination with X - ray if in doubt and 100% proof;
Assaying with the touchstone
The touchstone testing method is a fast non-destructive screening and assaying method. The kind of precious metal and the fineness are determined by testing the colour and chemical resistance. The materials used are touchstones, touch acids and touch needles (alloys with an accurately established fineness of precious metal).
http://www.hallmarking.com/hallmarking/assaying
Remember an Assay office has a reputation to uphold!

Oel

[Qrt.S]

Yes, acid in combination with X-Ray, but what might the result be without the X-Ray and that is what I'm talking about. It is what I have said all the time, unreliable! The acid test can only proof that it is not silver and nothing else.

[JBA]

If it's so unreliable it begs the question of how bullion merchants (who work on tiny percentages- .5% to 2% typically) ever manage to make a profit.