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The Process of Assaying Black

Sands and Lye Burn Method


by Joe Lello
By John V Milewski
Rev. April 10 2008
HISTORY OF MY EARLY BLACK SAND ASSAYING
These new experiments were first started in late December 2007.
The details of the new assaying process for black sand are given
below.
Before I start with these details, I want to comment on a few
anomalies that occurred doing the development of these new and
early assay attempts. I believe that these four anomalies all have
the same cause which is that these new metals are not fully
converted from the Ormus state.
The first anomaly is the disappearance of the first two beads
overnight, the second is that two beads occurred during the
cupelling process and the third is that these assays seem to be
producing two different metal beads in the same assaying
experimentusually, in conventional assays, they alloy into one
compound bead. I have not heard of any of these things
happening before in the typical assay process.

Finally, the specific gravity of these new "metals" is quite low


when compared to the type of platinum group metals I believe
them to be.
My explanation for the observations above is that the metal
beads that formed in two distinct shapes that were separate from
each other, in the bottom of the cupel, were only partly
converted Ormus materials.
My understanding of the Ormus atoms is that the outer electrons
become whirlwinds of light and develop a Meissner field which
is like a diamagnetic field that is repelled by all other fields.
This repelling field might cause the different metals to repel
each other. So if the conversion of the Ormus elements to their
metallic form was not complete, then some of this repelling field
may have been present. This might account for the metals
separating in the lead solution as these solutions became
saturated and the metal started agglomerating during the final
stages of the cupelling process, when the lead was slowly
disappearing, thus producing two separate beads.
The different shape of these beads, I believe, comes from the
natural crystal structure of these different metals, their relative
solubility in molten lead at the cupelling temperature, and the
relatively large difference in melting points of the two metals.
One of the beads was mostly round like a typical assay bead but
it has a rough soccer ball like surface which I attribute to the fact
that high melting point platinum group metals are not molten at
the cupelling temperatures and therefore precipitate out of
solution exhibiting some of their natural crystal structure which
shows up as a rough surface on the metal bead. See more

explanation for this in the Assay method report given below.


The second bead came out looking like a bundle of grapes which
are extremely lustrous and shinny. This grape shape bundle of
metal I believe to be Iridium and the larger soccer ball shape
metal I believe to be Rhodium.
This first batch was finished late at night and I only had time to
look at them under my binocular microscope to see their relative
shape and size. The ball which I believed to be Rhodium was
about 1500 microns in diameter and probably weighted about 15
to 25 milligrams. The grape bundle which I believe to be
Iridium, was about 1100 microns long and about 300 to 400
microns in diameter with each individual grape being about 100
microns in diameter.
It was late and I did not take the time to photograph and weight
them individually since I planned to do that in the morning. I put
them together in a small 50 ml size, closed-lid bottle for
overnight storage. In the morning they were gone. I believe that
they were not converted enough to real metal and reverted back
into the non metallic Ormus state as a gas. For more discussion
on the idea see an article about Ormus is a gas see:
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hudson/ormusgas.htm
http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/tw/ormusgas.htm
This was very disappointing but I was also running a parallel
experiment using almost the same conditions and would have
these samples in the next two days.

As described in the new assaying process for black sands below,


it takes 4 to 5 firings and cupellings to get the entire yield from
one starting assay run. This run gave five individual beads
ranging in size from 400 microns in diameter to 900 microns in
diameter. When completed, I put all five beads in one cupel and
then I added 10 grams of Silver-free lead and cupelled them
together. This time two beads also formed but they were not
separated. They were bonded together and, under the
microscope, looked like a small silver basketball with a bundle
of shinny, silver marbles stuck on the side.
From earlier experiments in 1996, where this same grade of
magnetite was reduced and then run through X-ray analysis, it
was determined that the ratio of Rhodium to Iridium was about
five to one in favor of the Rhodium and that the total amount of
these platinum group metals together could be up to ten percent
of the magnetite. See the details of this data in the report titled
Discussions of X-ray data of reduced Magnetite, by John V
Milewski, Revised June 16, 2007
These beads, when fused together, weighed 0.332 grams. That is
a super tremendous yield and represents about ten percent of the
starting magnetite. WOW, WOW. This is unheard of and almost
impossible to believe, except for the fact that the beads are still
here, because this time they did not disappear overnight.
However, this is when the fourth anomaly showed up: I can
easily measure the diameter and weight and calculate the
specific gravity of the new metal. I expected it to come out in
the 14.5 g/cc range but, to my surprise, it came out to be about 8
g/cc. I explain this by assuming that these beads are still

exhibiting some of their Ormus properties and have not fully


gained their metallic weight.
So I am coming to the conclusion that all four of these strange
anomalies, that we see when assaying magnetite black sand, are
a byproduct of this Microwave process. (The Microwave
process apparently does not completely convert these elements
from the Ormus state to the new metallic state.
This Microwave process was repeated again and again and each
time two metals were formed. However, the yields were not as
high a before but still very significant for a black sand assay,
and the metal beads still remain and have not disappeared to
date.
The variations in yield may be attributed to the fact that when
assaying in a microwave it is very difficult to control the
temperature; which may vary as much as 50 degrees C from
process to process. When the whole assembly is placed on the
carrousel the temperature is always lower and more uniform and
the yield is always lower.
It is obvious that, for future work, the equipment needs refining
as well as an optimization of the full process; but I thought
getting this out to more skilled processors may help this come
about sooner. Since the metals do show a very reduce specific
gravity in the 7 to 8 range where no platinum group metals come
even close, we still have a mystery and clearly more exploratory
work has to be done to understand what is going on here.
INTRODUCTION TO CURRENT ASSAY METHOD

Using a standard assay for iron oxide on magnetite/black sand


does not work well. The magnetite is too chemically inert to
dissolve, to any relevant extent, in the standard assay flux. As a
result, it mostly remains undissolved and severely thickens up
the assay glass so it does not pour and separate from the lead.
This also results in no significant detectable amount of platinum
group metals being extracted from the black sand ore.
When you use the standard assay process, of about 30 grams of
black sand and 90 grams of flux, you get a relatively smaller
lead button which is about half the expected weight. When you
cupel this lead you get a very small bead that can be seen with a
20 x microscope and which measures out to be in the 50 micron
range. Looking at this bead at a much high power, one can see
an unexpectedly different surface structure.
I have been doing fire assays for over 30 years now; so I know
what these differences mean.
If the metal you are assaying is either Gold or Silver when the
cupelling is complete you will get a small metal bead. If it is
Gold you have the golden color that is unmistakable. But if it is
Silver, Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium or Iridium the colors are
all a silvery metallic color. With Silver the surface is mirror
smooth like a shinny glass Christmas bulb. The reason for this is
that the cupelling temperature is so close above the melting
point of the Silver that it is essentially coming out in a molten
state. However when assaying platinum group metals that have
melting points considerably above the cupelling temperature
then you get a significantly different surface structure. That is

because you are precipitating the metal out of a saturated


solution and its crystal structure begins to show as irregularities
on the surface that make it look more like a soccer ball with a
side growth of the second metal as seen in figures 1 and 2
below:

Figure 1

Figure 2
ASSAY PROCESS
Because of the thickening process, as just discussed, 30 grams of
starting ore is clearly too much ore. Also, because of my earlier
work on x-ray analysis of reduced magnetite I became
convinced that the black sand contains a very high percentage of
platinum group elementsin the neighborhood of 10%. (See the
separate report on this below.) This report shows that three
grams of black sand would contain about 0.3 grams or 300
milligrams of platinum group metals which will be very easy to
detect and make a very large assay bead. So my next assay was
to try 3 grams of magnetite with the standard amount of flux.
The glass poured okay with some dissolved magnetite in it and
the lead button came out about standard sizeapproximately 32
grams. However the bead size after cupelling was very small
only about 100 microns. Examination of the bead under high
magnification did show that this had a surface structure of the
higher melting platinum group metals with what I call a soccer
ball surface as discussed before and shown in figures 1 and 2
above.
So I started a program of trying different ways to modify the
assay process to get a greater yield. The first modification I
made was to add carbon via charcoal to the assay mix. The
reasoning for this is that at the high temperatures of the assay
process the carbon will reduce the magnetite or iron oxide to
form alpha iron. The reasoning behind this idea is the alpha iron
is much more chemically active to work with that the very

chemically resistant magnetite.


So the next assay contained three grams of charcoal plus the
three of magnetite and ninety grams of flux. This gave a bead
yield two to three times larger than the assay run with no carbon
but still producing a very small yield in the range of 0.01 to 0.02
oz per ton. Even so, when the bead was examined under the
microscope it was seen to have the soccer ball surface typical of
a high melting silvery white bead. I then made a few more runs
with more and sometime less amounts of carbon, all with the
same results of a very small bead of a high melting platinum
group metal.
After a few days, at about 4 AM in the morning, the idea came
to try graphite. So my next run was made using this mix: 3
grams of black sand/magnetite ore, 3 grams of carbon charcoal,
3 grams of graphite and 90 grams of flux. See figure 3 below:

Figure 3
This new mix proved to be very fruitful but at the same time
much more difficult to complete. The graphite made the assay
glass very thick and difficult to process, so during the first
pouring only about 1/3 of the lead came out in the button and the
glass was heavily thickened with the graphite. However, as I
said before, this was extremely fruitful, producing a very large
bead that weighed 14 milligrams. Upon examination of the glass
it was seen the each of the graphite flakes was heavily coated
with a myriad of tiny balls of lead. So the next step was to take
the glass filled graphite lead mix and put it in an open dish and
burn off the graphite and collect some more of the lead. This
was done and a second lead button was collected and cupelled
resulting in a very large bead that was almost the same size as
the first bead. This one weighed 13 milligrams.
At this point in the process there still was a lots of lead coated
glass, which I believed still contained a lot of platinum group
metals in the lead and unconverted ormus elements in the glass.
A second assay like run was made on this residual mix with 10
grams of lead and 25 grams of boric anhydride added to make
the mix more fluid during the pouring. This assay process was
also a success. The lead button produced another large bead; this
time about 11 milligrams. See all three beads in figure 4 below:

Figure 4
When I added all three beads together and cupelled them with
ten grams of lead, a large bead was produced as shown earlier in
figure 2. This bead now produced a very significant yield of 38
milligrams which, in a standard assay, would represent about 38
oz of platinum group metals per ton. This is a very high number
but remember that this assay was run on only 1/10 of the
standard amount of ore. So, correcting for this, we now have a
yield of about 380 oz per ton of high melting temperature, silver
colored, platinum group metals.
A positive identification of these metals has not yet been
obtained but from my experience I strongly believe them to be
Rhodium and Iridium. A close look at the photos in figures 1
and 2 shows a round ball with a rough surface, which I believe
to be Rhodium, and a side growth, with many very small balls
attached to the side of the bigger bead, which I believe to be

Iridium.
From my earlier work, as reported in the x-ray testing done
several years ago, it was calculated that the ratio of Rhodium to
Iridium is about 5 to 1, and this looks like the approximate
amount of the two different looking metals found in the
combined metal bead that came from the final cupelling in the
process I just described.
I believe that the much higher melting point of the iridium
causes it to saturate and precipitate sooner into the smaller
crystal balls making it look different when compared to the
larger Rhodium ball which comes out later in the cupelling
process.
So, in conclusion, a process has been developed for assaying
black sands by using a much lower amount of ore, processing it
in a microwave and adding materials to the flux to help convert
the platinum group elements, that I believe are in the Ormus
form in the black sand, into metals which only show up as
metals in the in the final cupelling stage of the assay process.
MICROWAVE PROCESS
The microwave process that I am using is described in the
following photo sequence. Figure 5 below shows the insulation
blocks all cut to 6x6 inch squares. The thicker 2 inch blocks
have a 3 inch diameter hole in the center that holds the crucible.

Figure 5
In the microwave processing, these are covered top and bottom
with a one inch thick insulating block as seen fully assembled
into the microwave furnace in figure 6 below:

Figure 6
Figure 7 shows the 15 gram size clay crucible loaded with the 90
grams of flux, ore and additivesready to go into the insulation
assembly:

Figure 7
Figure 8 shows the assembly after it was taken out of the
furnace, for a look at the temperature, after 5 minutes of
processing in the microwave at power setting 10. It is just
starting to get red in color and exhibit some melting.

Figure 8
Figure 9 show the same crucible after 20 additional minutes at
power setting 8. It is fully melted with a red to orange color:

Figure 9
The unit was then left in the microwave for an additional 10
minutes at power setting 7 to allow more mixing and processing
to take place. At this time the unit is taken out of the furnace and
the crucible is poured into a cast iron cone mold so the lead and
glass can be separated as illustrated in figure 10 below:

Figure 10
Figure 11 shows the lead button at the bottom of the glass cone
and figure 12 shows it separated after being weighed:

Figure 11

Figure 12

It then it goes into the cupelling furnace as seen in figure 13 to


complete the process:

Figure 13
Finally the platinum group metal beads are collected as seen in
the earlier figures 1 and 2.

The Lye Burn Method


(a.k.a. "Lye Fusion")
by Joe Lello
www.atlantisalchemy.com

Introduction
Most would agree that the pinnacle of ORMUS production techniques would have
to be the classic sodium burn method, introduced to us by an individual whom, for
purposes of the Internet, prefers to remain known only as The Essene. The sodium
burn method is quite effective at disaggregating metals, but it unfortunately
requires the experimenter to handle a fairly spirited if not downright dangerous
substance - namely elemental sodium metal. Sodium metal itself is both caustic
and toxic, but much more problematic is the fact that elemental Sodium
spontaneously breaks down water into its component parts, Hydrogen and Oxygen,
immediately upon contact. This reaction occurs so quickly and so violently that it
produces a great quantity of heat, which more often than not ignites the highly
flammable Hydrogen gas, and that Hydrogen gas then burns even more fiercely
due to the presence of all that free Oxygen. If a large enough quantity of sodium
metal is involved, sufficient heat may be generated by these burning gases to reach
a temperature where the sodium metal itself may then ignite - and now you've got
some serious fireworks on your hands!
While elemental sodium metal can be safely handled with the use of a little
common sense, it is possible to attain results rivaling those of a sodium burn, by
utilizing a much tamer substance - namely the hydroxide of sodium, more
commonly known as lye. This process has come to be known as a "lye fusion" or
lye burn. It works well with black volcanic sand and it works very well with

copper metal. Unfortunately it has not proven very effective with gold metal,
however when you consider that the cost of a pound of sodium metal is roughly
$150 vs. an 18 oz. container of lye at three dollars and change - it makes pretty
good sense to save the sodium metal for use with gold or other precious metals.
It has been stated that Red Devil brand lye is almost as pure as reagent-grade
sodium hydroxide. Others claim that it contains contaminates. The author knows of
at least a dozen people who have been using Red Devil lye in their alchemical
Workings and ingesting the end products for years, and they are all still alive and
kicking - but if you are a perfectionist and worried about every part per gazillion of
contaminates, lab-grade sodium hydroxide is readily available, of course at a
significantly higher cost.
Perhaps this is also a good time to mention another controversy: that of glass
vessels vs. boiling lye. For all of you self-proclaimed scientific geniuses out there
who are so fond of pointing out that boiling lye reacts with glass, the author has
used the same Pyrex glass boiling crucible at least 25 times now with no
appreciable signs of attack other than a fine white film on the inner surface of the
crucible, and that is only in some spots. The ancient alchemist had no such
advantage as corrosion-resistant borosilicate glassware to work with, yet somehow
they got the job done without perishing. It is this author's opinion that, especially
for a beginner, the advantages of being able to see and more precisely control the
boiling process far outweigh any "danger of contamination" from lye attacking the
glass.

Nuts and Bolts


The lye fusion method is a relatively straight-forward procedure. If you can afford
it, a sturdy, covered titanium crucible seems to be preferred for working with either
elemental Sodium metal or Sodium Hydroxide. If you cannot obtain a titanium
vessel, acceptable results can be had by using a crucible made from 1810 stainless
steel. Generally, a small 5-inch or 6-inch diameter stainless steel cooking pot with
a well-fitting stainless steel lid makes an acceptable vessel. Make sure to remove
any plastic handles or knobs that may be present, and plug up any left-over holes
with a stainless steel nut and bolt. Another caution - make sure the handle is not
riveted on with aluminum rivets. The aluminum rivets will melt almost as soon as
your crucible hits the fire (...don't ask me how I know this!) and should the
aluminum metal make it's way into the lye - toxic compounds will be formed and
your project will be ruined. Drill any aluminum rivets out and replace them with

stainless steel nuts and bolts, or simply leave the handle off and plug up the holes
with stainless hardware.
Many inexpensive small cooking pots have an aluminum-filled base plate attached
to the bottom of the pan to assist in evenly distributing the heat when used at
normal cook stove temperatures. Try to avoid using this type of pot. When used as
a crucible, the aluminum layer will melt and ooze out of the cracks around the
bottom of the pot. While this may not seem all that problematic at first glance,
keeping those blobs of melted aluminum from reacting with the lye solution just
makes one more thing to have to deal with unnecessarily when you already have
enough to keep you busy.
If you are unsure of the composition of your crucible - do a dry run in the fire first
and see how it reacts. Better to find out you've got a problem with an empty
crucible, instead of a pot full of valuable prima materia. Heating the crucible to red
heat will also remove any traces of oils, waxes or chemicals that may be present.

Down to Business
Aside from the monetary savings, another big advantage to using lye is that it is a
finely divided material, generally present as small beads or granules. The small
grains mix more intimately with the materia than large, jaggedly-cut, hurriedlyarranged chunks of sodium metal. If you intend to do a burn using Copper or other
metal, take a thin sheet (foil is best) of your metal about 5 inches square and
hammer it out as thin as you can with a ball peen hammer. You may not notice
much happening with metals that are harder and less malleable than gold, but
hammer it out anyway - since you are putting a little of yourself and your intent
into the Work this way. Next, using a sturdy pair of scissors, cut the hammered
sheet into strips about 1/8th of an inch wide. Then take 3 or 4 strips at a time in
hand and cut them off into the smallest flakes you can make. The flakes should be
no larger than this letter "X."

Copper flakes ready to mix with lye granules.

If you are going to do a burn of black volcanic sand, put about 1/4 cup of your sand
into your prepared crucible and place it on the stove at the very lowest heat setting,
uncovered, for about 10-15 minutes to drive out any moisture. When you think the
sand is dry enough, place the cover on the crucible and set it aside to cool. When
the crucible is cool enough to hold in your hand, remove the top and add about 1 to
1-1/2 cups (8 to 12 oz.) of lye. Put the cover back on and shake thoroughly to mix
the lye and the sand together well. For metal flakes, a swirling motion works best
for this.

Into the Fire


A good source of heat for the lye fusion process is a propane "turkey cooker."
These are readily available (especially after the Thanksgiving holiday) from most
discount, department or dollar stores for somewhere in the neighborhood of 40
dollars (US). WalMart and Sears Hardware stores often "blow them out" on
clearance sales for as little as $14.99 per unit! Try to find one that is rated at least
145,000 BTU. A turkey cooker offers a distinct advantage over other types of
propane burners in that it is already set up with an acceptable platform upon which
to place the crucible. The author uses a large de-commissioned propane space
heater sold by W.W. Grainger that produces 250,000 BTU of heat. It is a great big
bear of a burner, good for outdoor use in cold climates, but it does not come with a
ready-to-use platform for the crucible. You'll have to rig something up yourself.

The author's "Big Bear" of a burner.

Be advised: If you want to be able to attain cherry-red heat outdoors, even in very
cold ambient temperatures, you are going to need a BIG burner. It is also a good
idea to set up some sort of a wind-break around your burner. CBS blocks or bricks
are the best bet, but wood may also be used if sufficiently insulated by facing it
with foil-backed insulation or sheet metal on 1/4" standoffs.

A suitable wind-break helps to conserve heat.

A further aid to getting enough heat is a heat-concentrator or shroud. This can be


made from a piece of sheet metal or a length of stovepipe. Place the concentrator
around the crucible to further increase the heat on those c-o-l-d northern days.

A sheet-metal heat-concentrating shroud.

Place your crucible and its contents onto the burner platform and place a 2-3 lb.
weight on the lid. A metal barbell weight works well for this. If nothing else, find a
good-sized rock or a brick. Avoid using concrete, as concrete tends to "explode"
when heated rapidly due to the expansion of trapped internal moisture. Try to get
your crucible centered over the burner as best you can. Some re-positioning of the
crucible may be necessary once you fire it up, so have some sort of implement
ready. Fireplace tongs work nicely for this, and it also wouldn't hurt to have a good
pair of welders gloves handy. Fire up the burner and try to get the crucible
completely engulfed in the flame so it is heated as evenly as possible.
There are generally no pyrotechnic flare-ups with lye, like you occasionally have
with a sodium burn, but there are still plenty of toxic vapors coming off of the
mixture so stay upwind of the burner. Ideally, your crucible should get red-hot, at
least the lower 1/3 of it. Once the crucible reaches glowing red heat, time the burn
for at least 30 minutes. You can let it go for an hour if you want to, but the author
has obtained good results at 30 minutes with both volcanic sand and Copper metal.

When you think your mixture has cooked sufficiently, cut the heat off and take a
break.

Bubble, bubble...
Remove the weight from the lid of the crucible as soon as you turn off the flame since this will usually take much longer to cool than the crucible itself and it's
entire contents. When the crucible is cool to the touch, remove the lid. It may be
necessary to tap the cover of the crucible gently around its circumference with a
small hammer to get it to loosen up and come off.
Remember people, this is highly caustic LYE - chunks of it may go flying
around >>> ONE SPECK OF IT IN YOUR EYE WILL BLIND YOU FOR
LIFE! <<< Always use safety goggles or safety glasses. Work near a sink and
have a bucket of fresh water on hand to use for an emergency eye-rinse. A
bottle of vinegar to neutralize any lye burns on the skin is also a good idea.
The contents of the crucible should now look kind of like solidified oatmeal.

Inside the crucible after a burn.

Unlike a sodium burn, the material in the pan is still very water soluble after a lye
burn! Anyone who has ever spent a few hours with their hands stuck in a plastic
bag, chipping and smashing chunks of caustic sodium-metal "cement" loose from
the bottom of a steel pan will definitely appreciate this point. Set the crucible down
into the bottom of a large plastic bucket and SLOWLY add distilled water to it,
stirring with a large plastic or stainless-steel spoon. When no more of the burned
material will dissolve into that batch of distilled water, dump the water out into
another plastic bucket and add some more fresh distilled water. Continue this
procedure until the crucible is empty.

Pour the dissolved material, and any leftover sand, metal, or what-have-you into a
2 quart stainless-steel pot (or Pyrex casserole) with a well-fitting lid. Add more 1:8
lye solution [16 oz. lye to 1 gallon distilled water] if necessary to bring the level up
to within an inch of the rim of the pot. Again, it is a good idea to put a weight on
the lid to keep as much steam from escaping as possible. Bring the solution to a
GENTLE ROLLING BOIL over a GAS flame, and boil for 4 - 6 hours, adding
more pre-heated distilled water periodically as needed to keep the level constant.
[Note: When a lye menstruum such as this begins to boil, it boils ALL AT ONCE,
and it will immediately boil over if the flame is set anywhere above a bare
minimum. Trust me - this makes a hell of a mess, not to mention the hazard to
people, pets, etc. If you start out with a medium flame to "get it going" - STAY
RIGHT THERE WITH IT UNTIL IT BEGINS TO BOIL and immediately reduce
the flame to a minimum to keep it from boiling over. If you do not heed this
advice, you will sorely wish that you had.]

Filter Time
Allow the solution sufficient time to cool and settle. Unfortunately, this might take
an entire day...or longer. If you have ever done anything that has anything at all to
do with Alchemy, then you know it takes a lot of PATIENCE. Nothing will come
of this procedure that will make anything happen in a hurry. We're not baking a
cake here. This isn't moonshine we're brewing. In most cases, the effects of M-state
materials take months and years to manifest, so WHAT'S YOUR HURRY? If you
allow sufficient time for the material to settle, your menstruum will be almost
crystal-clear and it will filter quite quickly and easily. If you rush it - you will clog
your filter paper and it will wind up taking even longer to get the job done.
The best method is to siphon the top liquid off of the settled solids using a length
of vinyl tubing (like air tubing used with an aquarium). If, however, you are one of
those people that just never got the hang of starting a siphon, you can simply use a
ladle to scoop out the liquid slowly so as not to disturb the settled solids.
Whichever method you choose, when the liquid level gets low, removing the last
of it will be a little easier if you cant the vessel to one side by propping it up
underneath one edge with something.
The best method is of course is to vacuum filter the menstruum with a Buchner
funnel and a 1 micron glass filter, however this is not absolutely necessary. Even if
you plan to do a vacuum filtration, you will still need to pre-filter the material.
Shown below is a method of filtering that has proven to work well either as a

prelude to vacuum filtering or as an end in itself. Obtain some stainless steel


strainers (try a dollar store) and stack 5 coffee filters into each of three strainers.
Place 3 clothespins evenly spaced around the rim of the first strainer, and pre-wet
the filters with distilled water. Repeat with the second strainer, then place the
second strainer inside the first, resting it's clothespins directly on top of the first set
of clothespins. Repeat with the third strainer. Some juggling of the clothespins may
be necessary to get everything situated, but once everything is in place, the setup
will remain stable throughout the procedure.

A handy setup for pre-filtering.

If you do not have a large Pyrex beaker, find a suitable container like a widemouthed gallon jug or a large bowl and position the strainers up above it as best
you can. Slowly add your menstruum until it all filters down into the container.
After filtering, the liquid should be as clear as vodka. If it is not, repeat the
procedure with fresh filters. (If your liquid is still cloudy after 30 coffee filters there's something wrong with your eyes, or your filters!)

Rock that pH!


For this portion of the process it is best to use a pH meter with decent resolution,
preferably one that has temperature compensation. Simple pH paper simply cannot
successfully be used for this. Why, you ask? Because unless you have eyes like an
oriental pearl sorter, it is impossible to discern a fraction of a pH point with pH
paper, not to mention the fact that you will need about 200 pieces of pH paper
every time that you do this. Practically every piece of lab equipment used in
Alchemy can be fudged with kitchenware or other common items, but not the pH
meter, sorry. If you are serious about alchemical Work, break down and buy a
decent meter, and I don't mean one of those $39 specials suitable only for checking
your salt-water aquarium. Get yourself a real pH meter. Probably the best-known
source for pH meters is Hanna Instrument Co. and their most economical, yet still
decent meter would be the HI8314.
Assuming that you have a decent pH meter, put a sufficient quantity of your
menstruum into a large beaker or other Pyrex glass container, position the meter
probe(s) and begin stirring the solution with a glass rod or nylon spoon. Be sure the
stirring tool is resistant to room-temperature acids and alkalis. Slowly drip in 20%
- 30% HCl into the menstruum while constantly stirring.
>>> Once again, remember...you are DRIPPING CORROSIVE ACID into
CAUSTIC LYE. ONE DROPLET OF EITHER SPLASHED IN YOUR EYE
WILL BLIND YOU. Always use proper eye protection. Work near a sink, and
have a bucket of clean water available as an emergency rinse, and some
vinegar to neutralize any lye burns on the skin. <<<
The goal here is to adjust the pH slowly, lowering it by no more than .1 pH point
per minute. Monitor the temperature of the solution while you are titrating it, and
do not allow the temperature to go above 45 degrees Centigrade (about 100 F). If
the temperature reaches 45 C, stop and let the solution cool. Go make a cup of tea
or something. - remember, we're not in any hurry here.
Bring the pH slowly down to 1.0 and stop. You may notice a characteristic
effervescence of the menstruum just before this point - this is quite normal. If the
temperature is still low enough, begin dripping in 1:8 lye solution, again while
constantly stirring. This time, the goal is now to RAISE the pH by no more than .1
pH point per minute. As before, do not allow the solution to heat above 45 degrees
C. When you get to about pH 7 or 8, depending on the temperature, you should see

a white precipitate beginning to form. If you are working with copper or black
volcanic sand, you can take the pH up to about 9.5 and stop.
If you were working with Copper metal, look very closely at the color of the
precipitate which forms. The precipitate MUST be white - any other color except
white is no good. If you should happen to get a blue or green precipitate, redissolve it by once again dripping HCl into the menstruum slowly until the pH
goes back down to 1.0 and try again. This time work much, much more slowly.

The Fun Part


All that's left to do now is to wash (almost) all of the salt out of our precipitate.
Find a large slender glass vessel shaped like a cylinder and pour the solution into it
to settle. Cover it with plastic wrap to keep dust, bugs, etc., out of it. You will find
that your precipitate will settle much faster if it is kept in the dark, so put some
aluminum foil, or a brown paper grocery bag over your settling vessel while it
falls. Department and dollar stores sometimes have large glass candle-holders that
make excellent precipitate-settling cylinders. Some hold upwards of 2 liters of
solution and they are very inexpensive, so you won't beat yourself up so bad when
it slides through those lye-slippery fingers and goes crashing to the floor. An
acceptable glass cylinder can also be made by removing the top portion of a glass
bottle, but this will be left up to the resourcefulness of the individual.

Candle-holder cylinders, one with nail polish spots every 250 ml .

When the solution has settled completely - again, this may take a day or longer pour or siphon off the top water until only precipitate remains in the cylinder and
add roughly 3 times the volume of the precipitate of distilled water and let it settle
again. When this has settled, taste a little bit of it with a plastic spoon. If it is still
too salty for you, wash it again. If you plan to carry any of the solution anywhere
by car, or send any of it to someone by mail, be sure to leave plenty of salt in it to
protect it from x-rays and EMF from scanners, etc.

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