why wouldn't this work for getting impurities from gold during melting with mapp gas:?

Question

I've probably spent too much time staring at the glowing little egg and breathing too many fumes, but for years now I ve melted gold in some old pottery crucibles. Ive had some luck with sticking the tip of a stainless steakknife in the molten gold and slowly sifting-out little pieces of metal that aren't quite in a liquid state. This process I use also is to set up a piece of pottery so it's directly above a cast iron skillet full of distilled water. Once the molten gold is 'clear' (actually looks like yellowish mercury) I get to a point where I take some big pliers and spill the molten blob right into the water. If I could control the spill so that it cools while it's still going down in the water, wouldn't the bottom part be heavier and thus of purer form? If I grind this piece of alloy with a course file into little shavings would that help help before using nit/acid? I've got some merc, too, but I'd like to find a way that's chem-free and just uses gravity. Or melting temps.

Answer 1

It won't work. Gold is much denser than water and gravity will not be able to separate the phases quickly.