Pickle is used to clean oxidation and flux residue off of metal. It is an acidic solution that you can buy from a jewelry supply store, or you can make a do-it-yourself version at home. Pickle can be stored in a glass jar or a ceramic crock pot. It works faster if it’s heated up, which is why a lot of people use a crock pot. It helps to keep pickle in a closed container so that the liquid doesn’t evaporate as quickly.
I use a product called Ph minus for pickle, which is an acid that lowers the Ph level in pools and hot tubs. I dissolve a little of this in water, and it works well for me. I don’t bother heating it, since it works fine cold, just takes a bit longer.
Other DIY versions of pickle that I’ve heard of include using Simple Green (the household cleaning product), lemon juice, and vinegar. I can’t vouch for how well these work since I’ve never tried them, but they are all inexpensive and safe, so they might be worth a try.
To use pickle, drop your oxidized metal in and wait for the oxidation to come off. Avoid touching the pickle in any way with steel (such as steel tweezers) because this will automatically copper plate everything you are trying to clean. Copper tongs are available for dropping items into pickle and then fishing them out later. Since pickle is an acid, even if you use one of the milder at-home versions, you might not want to get it on your skin, so copper tongs or even some wood chopsticks are useful to get your jewelry in and out of the pickle.
November 30th, 2007 - 8:40 pm
I own a large assortment of jewelry that I wear regularly. My husband also owns a few mens tungsten rings and wears those on a regular basis too. We have found that keeping our jewelry clean is sometimes difficult. Some of the harsher chemicals we’ve tried actually ruined the finish on our jewelry and we had to replace those pieces with new ones. Ph minus sounds like an excellent alternative to the cleaners we’ve used in the past and I think that we’ll end up trying some sooner or later.
November 23rd, 2008 - 10:48 am
Be sure to always quench your hot jewelry items BEFORE dropping them in the pickle, regardless of type. The high temperatures will cause the pickle to “burn” and get quickly contaminated.
November 23rd, 2008 - 10:49 am
Quench in water before pickling!
November 24th, 2008 - 12:31 pm
John – yes, this is a very good point – don’t drop hot metal that’s just been soldered into the pickle without quenching or letting it cool off first!
April 5th, 2009 - 10:00 am
Can you tell me how long you keep your items in the pickle? For example, should you just dip them and try to rub off oxidation or should you wait for the oxidation to disappear?
Also, does it matter if you’re using the same pickle for fine silver, argentium and sterling?
April 6th, 2009 - 7:10 am
I leave them in the pickle until most of the discoloration is gone, then I rinse off the pickle, and use something like steel wool to remove the rest of it. How long it takes for pickle to remove all the oxidation depends on a lot of things: how oxidized your metal is, how strong your pickle solution is, and the temperature of the pickle. So you just have to wait and see how long it takes to clean up your pieces. HTH.
September 6th, 2009 - 9:01 am
I left some Sterling Silver in the pickle for a week! (I was busy with other things and forgot about it.)
The soldered parts all broke off when I pushed on them a little.
Did the pickle break down the soldered areas and can If I re-solder them will they be OK?
How long is too long to leave in the pickle?
September 7th, 2009 - 9:23 am
Pickle might break down the solder – I’ve never had it happen, but I’ve also never left something in pickle for a week. I think you can re-solder them – I would clean the metal & lightly sand or buff the area where you are going to solder first.
September 12th, 2009 - 7:25 am
Thanks, I did re solder and it seems ok!
October 12th, 2009 - 10:36 am
Thanks for the tips! Any idea if it’s ok to put brass and copper together in the pickle? I just did and the brass seems to have gotten some copper plating around where I soldered. Have you had any experience with this?
Thanks!
Cindy
October 12th, 2009 - 11:57 am
I’ve actually never soldered brass, so unfortunately I don’t know the answer. There is a great metalsmithing forum at ganoksin.com – I bet somebody there could tell you though. Good luck!
November 15th, 2009 - 8:29 pm
Rather than soldering, I’m fusing Argentium sterling silver wire. After fusing, the finish on the silver is significantly dulled (by oxidation, I presume). Where it hasn’t been dulled, it is often discolored. I can generally remove the dull finish (but not the discoloration) with a generous application of elbow grease and a Sunshine polishing cloth.
Will pickle help?
Thanks in advance!
Jim
November 16th, 2009 - 12:11 pm
Hi Jim – I don’t pickle my argentium silver. For discoloration, I know it sounds weird, but running it through a flame a little bit more had gotten rid of that for me. As for the dullness, do you have a tumbler? My argentium comes out of the tumbler all shiny again. If you don’t have a tumbler, a brass brush attachment on a flexshaft or dremel tool also works well to shine it back up. Hope this helps!
November 16th, 2009 - 1:59 pm
Hi Leah!
Thank you so much for your quick response! I do chase the discoloration around and will continue to do that. And I do have a tumbler. Have you had any experiences tumbling your silver once you’ve added glass or stone beads?
Thanks again!
Jim
November 16th, 2009 - 4:23 pm
I usually try to tumble before adding stones or beads – just in case, since some stones like turquoise, and pearls, can be damaged by the tumbler. I have tumbled silver with glass and harder stones, and maybe I was lucky, but no damage was done. I’ve heard of people tumbling pearls, even, but it seems risky to me.
November 16th, 2009 - 5:43 pm
Hi again!
My experiences are similar – I’ve damaged more stones with heat than I have in the tumbler. I’m usually using harder stones, so I’ll keep tumbling away.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond. I definitely appreciate your blog and your responses! Thanks thanks!
Jim
November 18th, 2009 - 3:31 pm
Thanks for writing, Jim! I love getting good relevant comments on my blog
December 8th, 2009 - 12:50 pm
Great info, I love that you answer your comments so well! I got here while googling to figure out if it was ok that I left some stuff in pickle before I went to work today…I guess if someone did it for a week, it will be ok until I get home!!
Thanks so much for sharing the info, and your helpfulness!
Kristin
December 9th, 2009 - 9:54 am
Thanks Kristin! Glad you stopped by.
May 7th, 2010 - 12:54 pm
I found your site on del.icio.us this morning and really liked it. I bookmarked your blog and will definitely be back soon to read your new posts!