Ha, now this takes me back to childhood. I clearly remember the day where I took my butane torch pen to a piece of pyrite, I'd have been all of 10 years old. Why do I remember it so vividly? Because after a few seconds of heating, the bloody thing popped. Fragments in all directions, with the lucky exception of my hands. I will never forget the sound of bits twanging off the house windows, and a somewhat increased heart rate. Amazing that something that happened 25 years ago, and probably not thought of since, can be brought flooding back by the chance viewing of a video today. Thanks!
bigstackD Casting Oh I’ve been working my way through the videos for about a week. Don’t know what it is, but there’s something very watchable about this topic. Thanks.
when we done it with cube pyrite without crushing this ended in injury,hot chunk of pyrite did hit my face.we used 5cm cubes and one of cubes exploded in half,one of halves pierced the aluminium can and hit on my lips.... third degree burn. 2 weeks of healing. when we used "potato" shaped pyrite rocks the explosions didnt occur at all,there did chunks fly but not so many,after crushing it to dust we were able to melt it partially,pyrite is highly unstable,too heated is exploding like grenade. best is to heat up to red our cruicible,ut the pyrite in,close the cruisible and then keep heating it.
Those where cubic pyrite, try it with the small grain pyrite. First you burn off the sulfides at 900-1000 degress. Then take the powder and add add borax and copperoxide (in a 30% pyrite /45% borax / 25% copperoxide, then Heat it at 1100 degress in a closed crucibel. Use a cone shaped cast to gather all goodies in the bottom. good luck.
Thanks for making this video! I was wondering if fools gold melted, and it was very cool that I could actually watch someone smelt it instead of just reading the wikipedia page.
I just found this video again lol and Im a lot more experiences with chemistry than I was before. I think what you did was actually decompose it into its main components iron and sulfur (hence the smell of sulfur being boiled away) and the oxygen reacted with the iron to form iron oxide (magnetite). Or maybe it didnt form oxide maybe it’s just pure iron
The reason the fools gold was popping is because of the liquid/moisture in the mineral it's self. Since the moisture is trapped in there it pops. Same thing with salt
Fool's Gold, AKA Pyrite, AKA Iron (II) Disulfide is anhydrous: there's no water in its structure at all. It's popping because of the release of Sulfur Dioxide gas as the ore is heated, leaving behind a non-homogeneous Iron slag (Elemental Iron, Iron Oxides, and probably some remaining Iron Sulfides, though not many). It's also possible that soot created from incompletely-burned fuel has been left behind, though that's not very likely since this furnace appears to have extra air injected to increase the burn temperature.
@@bigstackD that's no fun-do you realize how many things on the Streets there are to melt? Copper and Aluminium power cables, street signs, cars and people? [[Some of them have Gold Teeth you know-use the leaf blower to send their ashes into the wind]], as Paul would say "HEAT! FIRE! XCHAOS!"
I read that one has to crush the pyrite and combine it with carbon powder. When the mixture is heated, the sulfur combines with the carbon, leaving the iron free.
First, 4FeS2+11O2=2Fe2O3+8SO2 Also, since you closed the lid, after the oxygen in there all reacted, the rest of the pyrite became Iron and sulphur: FeS2=Fe+2S That’s also why the black powder you got is highly magnetic.
It would if he completed the process, he just didn't know what he was doing. You can get gold out of pyrite. A small amount, but still a neat party trick.
@@Victor-056 i used hydraulic press and crushed 30kg of pyrite for 19g of gold. ..i tried smelt the leftover and managed to melt pyrite a little but yes its turning black if you do it wrong. 1100-1200c is eoungh to hurt pyrite. but you want preheated cruicible then throw pyrite in and continue heating but yes, NEVER USE CUBE pyrite,they will always burn into powder or explode. its worst type of pyrite to try to melt. high sulphur levels and sush...
Always use a conical mould, that way if there's any gold present it'll collect at the bottom. The gold amount in iron pyrite is like 0.01% to 0.25% by weight so it's not really worthwhile. Edit: My bad, I thought you knew what you were doing. You got half way through reduction, but never continued on to extraction to get gold out of it. (For those curious this is how it's done; watch?v=AfDKQus3qfE )
Yeah wow, I have been saving up my pyrite that I will crush and send, I have no clue on melting, but I think it needs to be roasted before actually melted, i know my pyrite has gold 😊
I found it amazing how the crucible was glowing past red... almost a yellow white - but still has strength to be tapped on brickworks -- entertaining even if the result wasn't to be expected - keep up the videos mate as always!
+Pillobird cheers buddy👍🏻. I am aware that any sharp blow or tapping of really any kind of crucible is asking for trouble especially a glowing hot one but I had me protective stuff on and didn't care if it shattered . Might have looked cool?
I like these old videos where you experiment with stuff, Big D. Lately it's been a whole lot of copper, aluminum, aluminum bronze and brass. Would love to see you tackle some other metals alloys like actual bronze or more obscure stuff other then 'nordic gold'. Bismuth looks like is a ton of fun to mess with too.
I love so many elements of this video. On the verge of HowToBasic style-wise. The "why" of it seems to be - just to see what happens. Something I would do. Full sleeve tattoo. Nice. Furnace made out of a keg - the cherry on the top.
I reckon you synthesised magnetite from your pyrite using the process of calorgenation: imbuing the composition of the rock mineral with the surrounding 'air' using heat. The surrounding air replaces the lost sulphur. Understandable why iron pyrite is not magnetic before heating yet after heating it is very magnetic. I notice also the pyrite was unable to be poured from the crucible so was not imho molten. All good stuff nevertheless.
Calorgenation? You mean reduction and oxidation. Half of the process used to extract gold from pyrite. The only instance of the word 'calorgenation' on the entire internet stems from your channel, which appears to be full of pseudoscientific woowoo and nonsense.
@@bashkillszombies nooooo Calorgenation is a process by which a substance is imbued by the srrounding 'air through heat! Think of heating a metal in an environment filled with nitrogen. The substance will be imbued with nitrogen - can't be down to oxidation because there is no oxygen in that environment!
This is actually how you can collect sulfur. Put a bunch of fool's gold in a pot, connect it to another pot with a pipe and then superheat the fool's gold until all the sulfur heats out of it, leaving behind only iron! End result is two very useful elements instead of a single seemingly useless one.
By the way gold and silver are just a mix of lead + copper + sulfur, that clarify why gold is resistant to acids and alkalis. it also explain why gold is shiny and soft.
That's cool ! I'd like to see that magnetism in another video ! It would also be interesting to know how it became magnetic. Sounds like you discovered a way to create magnetic powder. But kind of reminds me of the ink toner powder in old copy machines sticking to a statically charged drum to make photocopy's on paper. :)
Let down at the end, but extremely interesting. Wonder what happened chemically? Sulfur just evaporated & left the raw iron behind? Wonder how it forms naturally if this is the case when it's heated.
god knows mate ? for all i know there could still be a heap of sulfur left in the powder, i just say it how it looks to me.Im usually wrong but my vids arnt very popular so i wont be upsetting too many people if i get it wrong ;)
My guess is someone else has already explained the chemistry by now, but I'm not seeing it in the comments. I've been trying to figure out a way to create synthetic pyrite and came across your video. I found your video interesting that you are doing what I want to do in reverse. :) Pyrite is iron (II) disulfide (FeS2) and heating it in a furnace which isn't free of oxygen will react with the FeS2 to produce FeS, Fe(II),(III) oxides and SO2. SO2 is sulfur dioxide and is the strong smell you observed. It's the same fumes which come out of fresh cut onions and this forms sulfuric acid in your eyes when coming in contact with your tears. It will also produce sulfuric acid in your lungs if you breathe it in. I'm just stating factoids here about the sulfuric acid and not criticizing anything about your video. I'm guessing more sulfuric acid is produced in your eyes from onions cut indoors rather than getting in contact with the fumes from your furnace while outside. As an additional side note. The remains you have ground up is a mix of iron sulfide and iron (II) and (III) oxides. Due to the very hot flame in your awesome DIY Keg furnace (which I'm jealous of), I wouldn't be surprised if most of what you have in the end is iron (II), (III) oxide. Being as black as it is, I suspect most of the iron sulfide is spent so the remains are likely to be a mixture of iron (II), (III) oxide with very little remaining iron sulfide. Iron (II), (III) oxide is also known as magnetite, so that's mainly what you produced.
Thanks Matt that was quite very interesting you sound like a professor or science teacher 😁. Yeah I didn’t really know what to expect going into this but I thought I would film it as I was sure a lot of other people were probably interested also👍🏻😉
I appreciate that compliment. I'm just an amateur home chemist. I took chemistry up as a hobby last year in September. I study every day and perform experiments either every day or several times a week. I still feel lost on so many occasions and I know I just have to keep working on improving my knowledge. I've mostly been studying iron and copper compounds/salts, aluminum and corundum as I have been working on making synthetic ruby and sapphire via the Verneuil process (flame fusion method). I've also been creating my own high alumina refractory ceramics and I have a video holding a piece in my bare hand using a blow torch to get the ceramic white hot. I had to cut it short because I was too close to my chair and the fake leather started to melt and smoke. LOL. Even my original post contained information that wasn't quite fully accurate, but I feel it was accurate enough. There are other by products such as sulfur trioxide which is the main compound to produce sulfuric acid. Also, the roast of the iron sulfide would also produce hydrogen sulfide, which is the rotten egg smell.--I am anosmic, which means I don't have a sense of smell at all. I don't know if I stated incorrectly in my original post that sulfur dioxide is the smell, but if I did, that's not correct. I'll re-read what I wrote. Anyhow, I really enjoyed your video and I look forward to seeing more. A few months ago I obtained around 40 lbs of calcium carbide and I've only a couple ideas of what to use it for. I live in an apartment community, so carbide cannons are kind of off limits. I'm working on a small acetylene torch design using the calcium carbide, but it's taking me a while because I'm really concerned with safety for this particular project.
*edited again* Yep. I did inaccurately state that the smell was from the SO2 (that's not actually inaccurate, SO2 has a pungent smell from what I read). That was actually the hydrogen sulfide you smelled, possibly, but considering your furnace, I don't know how much hydrogen sulfide was available from the reaction since H2S is flammable.--it was most likely just the SO2 you smelled as I stated in the original post. I made my own hydrogen sulfide (H2S) detector using lead acetate and filter paper. It works great and it's saved me a couple times.
Yeah Can never be too careful with all this chemical stuff. 99% of my melts I now use an full facemask with an industrial respirator so I can now make sure not to enjoy the dangerous smells I create in my garage😮🤭
Okay so I had something interesting happen with pyrite. I thought it was meteorite and mostly iron, so in a crucible I put old drill bits and some bits of 1095 and a chain. I crushed it up and used it as iron powder, then added some graphite and then crushed glass so its air tight. The steel didn't melt, but the pyrite actually did, and fused to the steel. It is incredibly beautiful but I don't know if the iron is pure, i've yet to work the pieces yet.
Thank you so much. I was looking for a quick solution to convert lead into golden lead by transferring the paint of pyrite to lead. By the way gold and silver are mix of lead + copper + sulfur, that clarify why gold is resistant to acids and alkalis. it also explain the softness of gold.
Thanks mate I appreciate your comment. I’m just disappointed I left out the bit where I checked the powder at the end and it was extremely magnetic , when I was editing I left that bit out accidentally🤦🏻♂️
I was going to try the same thing and then I watched this video. I wonder if you could take the black sand and extrude the gold in it using a centrifuge or acid????
nah, you should get the powder and put a magnet next to it the pyrite when melted should burn the sulfur away and give you iron and since the iron was spread apart then you should get magnetite which is a iron oxide, very magnetic!!!
heat it up in the air will give iron oxide in solid SO2 goes in air, then now we can add some carbon inside to make some iron (steel, depend on how much carbon)
+Stephen Su yeah gas is a pretty awesome. I wish it was safe to blow shit up that would be cool but I suppose if it was then everyone would do it and the coolness factor would soon dwindle.
Yeah I hear ya matey , I was pretty disappointed myself but I’ve never seen a video where they actually show the whole process so had to do it myself but disappointed as I would’ve loved To have a fools gold ingot it’s a shame that’s not possible. Also that power at the end was extremely magnetic but I accidentally edited that bit out👍🏻
Actually you shouldn't smell it ,because when u burn sulfur it will turn to SO and then SO2 and then SO3, when SO3 touches water then It will turn into sulfuric acid
Yeah I won’t be melting it again I was just curious what would happen 😉. I always melt all my metals etc in a well ventilated area and when fumes get to high I have a pretty good industrial ventilator/face mask I use👍🏻.
Wow....some of that is worth some good money man! Especially in crystal form. Some people crush it first then roast it and THEN smelt it (with a cone shaped mold!) And what you're left with can be a nice little picker of real gold. Just be careful what kind of pyrite it is. Some have arsenic and you have to be very careful not to breath any fumes in! Happy hunting buddy!
I love experiments and this is a good one! Now we know that we shouldn't use pyrite in casting of some stuff.... :) It's interesting if this mineral exploded because of moisture or something else.
kleadus gaming said and i quote ''The reason the fools gold was popping is because of the liquid/moisture in the mineral it's self. Since the moisture is trapped in there it pops. Same thing with salt" . An interesting experiment if nothing else ;)
I just wonder if bring the temperature up to Iron smelting temperature would make an ingot. Might have to use a sealed crusable. If I had the equipment I would try it.
+wolfman887 yeah I'm thinking it might but my crucibles are rated to 1500 degrees Celsius and I'll be going a bit higher than that to melt it. I have the powder set aside so maybe at a later date it's something I can look at. It would be pretty cool turning powder into an ingot.👍🏻
Yeah i was hoping the iron ore would go molten but i was way off. i have been told the powder once heated up to around 1540 Degrees Celsius will become molten but my furnace cant get that high not without a 2nd burner atleast.
Soon yah...the fools gold popping is the sulfur popping. If you crush fools gold and heat it in a regular furnace and catch the smoke you have a source of sulfur for gun powder
A ton of my pyrite-10+20, roasted, ground to pass 40, tabled = $46,000+-. Repeatable top flight assay labs. What say my internet friends? Lots of it choking my sluice boxes and shot through bedrock.
@@bigstackD well, every 10 cubic yards of material I feed my wash plant fills my sluice box with this dang pyrite and then the gold I’m trying to capture out spits out the box. Jig plant is next
So, if I heat the pyrite sand particles with an open flame, it pops. Will gold do the same thing, or will I end up with remaining gold particles while the pyrite will have blown out of the ceramic cup? Just asking... I have dirty gold ore with pyrite and quartz. Did the muriatic acid bath and removed the magnetic particles. The remaining ore is still very dirty. Any suggestions?
i wish i had 1 of those that would be great. Im in no way an expert and for all i know there could still be 50/50 iron sulfur mix in the end result ,i just say it as i see it my friend;)
Ha, now this takes me back to childhood. I clearly remember the day where I took my butane torch pen to a piece of pyrite, I'd have been all of 10 years old. Why do I remember it so vividly? Because after a few seconds of heating, the bloody thing popped. Fragments in all directions, with the lucky exception of my hands. I will never forget the sound of bits twanging off the house windows, and a somewhat increased heart rate.
Amazing that something that happened 25 years ago, and probably not thought of since, can be brought flooding back by the chance viewing of a video today.
Thanks!
No worries my friend I’m glad it jogs your memory. Be sure to watch my other videos who knows what memories they will bring back🤔😁
bigstackD Casting Oh I’ve been working my way through the videos for about a week. Don’t know what it is, but there’s something very watchable about this topic.
Thanks.
when we done it with cube pyrite without crushing this ended in injury,hot chunk of pyrite did hit my face.we used 5cm cubes and one of cubes exploded in half,one of halves pierced the aluminium can and hit on my lips.... third degree burn. 2 weeks of healing.
when we used "potato" shaped pyrite rocks the explosions didnt occur at all,there did chunks fly but not so many,after crushing it to dust we were able to melt it partially,pyrite is highly unstable,too heated is exploding like grenade. best is to heat up to red our cruicible,ut the pyrite in,close the cruisible and then keep heating it.
Ditto
The same happened with me,(reminiscing)the days when the lil homies and I would hike the mountains in search for this.
Those where cubic pyrite, try it with the small grain pyrite. First you burn off the sulfides at 900-1000 degress. Then take the powder and add add borax and copperoxide (in a 30% pyrite /45% borax / 25% copperoxide, then Heat it at 1100 degress in a closed crucibel. Use a cone shaped cast to gather all goodies in the bottom. good luck.
Damn that sounds like a lot of work matey 🤔
That's great.
You like gold that's how you get gold from pyrite lol
what will be the end result after following your procedure sir?
Where I shall find coperoxide?
Thanks for making this video! I was wondering if fools gold melted, and it was very cool that I could actually watch someone smelt it instead of just reading the wikipedia page.
Looking forward to showing this video to my students when we learn about metals, non-metals, metaloids.
That’s awesome my friend hopefully it will generate a whole class full of new subscribers👊🏻😁
I guess you can't melt ALL your troubles away... still very interesting!
yeah paul a bit of a let down but hey it keeps me off the streets;)
Very interesting, lad. Try adding molten aluminum, copper, tin, zinc and brass to fools gold together makes fools gold as realistic as possible.
I just found this video again lol and Im a lot more experiences with chemistry than I was before. I think what you did was actually decompose it into its main components iron and sulfur (hence the smell of sulfur being boiled away) and the oxygen reacted with the iron to form iron oxide (magnetite). Or maybe it didnt form oxide maybe it’s just pure iron
YOU SIR HAVE HELPED ME WITH AN ESSAY
+ZEN X Also that powder left over is highly magnetic👍🏻
This scratched the itch in my brain. 🧠 I swore I thought it would melt like metal
Yes, I thought so as well👍🏻
The reason the fools gold was popping is because of the liquid/moisture in the mineral it's self. Since the moisture is trapped in there it pops. Same thing with salt
Ok cool I had no idea👍🏻
I thought it was the sulfer
It was actually the sulfur durrr
Fool's Gold, AKA Pyrite, AKA Iron (II) Disulfide is anhydrous: there's no water in its structure at all. It's popping because of the release of Sulfur Dioxide gas as the ore is heated, leaving behind a non-homogeneous Iron slag (Elemental Iron, Iron Oxides, and probably some remaining Iron Sulfides, though not many). It's also possible that soot created from incompletely-burned fuel has been left behind, though that's not very likely since this furnace appears to have extra air injected to increase the burn temperature.
@@bigstackD that's no fun-do you realize how many things on the Streets there are to melt? Copper and Aluminium power cables, street signs, cars and people? [[Some of them have Gold Teeth you know-use the leaf blower to send their ashes into the wind]], as Paul would say "HEAT! FIRE! XCHAOS!"
I read that one has to crush the pyrite and combine it with carbon powder. When the mixture is heated, the sulfur combines with the carbon, leaving the iron free.
First, 4FeS2+11O2=2Fe2O3+8SO2
Also, since you closed the lid, after the oxygen in there all reacted, the rest of the pyrite became Iron and sulphur:
FeS2=Fe+2S
That’s also why the black powder you got is highly magnetic.
Wow, that is intriguing!
Aww! Was hoping it would melt into a lovely gooey golden goodness. Now I know 🤔
🤔mmm , pretty disappointing but yeah atleast we now know👍🏻
It would if he completed the process, he just didn't know what he was doing. You can get gold out of pyrite. A small amount, but still a neat party trick.
@@bashkillszombies It also involves smashing the Pyrite with a hammer, which is actually pretty easy, as it's very brittle.
@@Victor-056 i used hydraulic press and crushed 30kg of pyrite for 19g of gold. ..i tried smelt the leftover and managed to melt pyrite a little but yes its turning black if you do it wrong. 1100-1200c is eoungh to hurt pyrite. but you want preheated cruicible then throw pyrite in and continue heating but yes, NEVER USE CUBE pyrite,they will always burn into powder or explode. its worst type of pyrite to try to melt. high sulphur levels and sush...
@@bashkillszombies plz guide how to separate gold from pyrite? procedure?
Always use a conical mould, that way if there's any gold present it'll collect at the bottom. The gold amount in iron pyrite is like 0.01% to 0.25% by weight so it's not really worthwhile. Edit: My bad, I thought you knew what you were doing. You got half way through reduction, but never continued on to extraction to get gold out of it. (For those curious this is how it's done; watch?v=AfDKQus3qfE )
nah matey if you see any of my vids i dont know bugger all about this stuff but i still make some cool shit👌😁
@@bigstackDIndeed you do, greetings from the USA.
Yeah wow, I have been saving up my pyrite that I will crush and send, I have no clue on melting, but I think it needs to be roasted before actually melted, i know my pyrite has gold 😊
Thanks for this video. I was wondering about melting pyrite and found this video.
I found it amazing how the crucible was glowing past red... almost a yellow white - but still has strength to be tapped on brickworks -- entertaining even if the result wasn't to be expected - keep up the videos mate as always!
+Pillobird cheers buddy👍🏻. I am aware that any sharp blow or tapping of really any kind of crucible is asking for trouble especially a glowing hot one but I had me protective stuff on and didn't care if it shattered . Might have looked cool?
as long as your looking after yourself mate
I like these old videos where you experiment with stuff, Big D. Lately it's been a whole lot of copper, aluminum, aluminum bronze and brass. Would love to see you tackle some other metals alloys like actual bronze or more obscure stuff other then 'nordic gold'. Bismuth looks like is a ton of fun to mess with too.
might be interesting, but he needs to finish his hoard goal first so...
Very cool, good to know what fools gold will do when cooked. very informative.
I always wondered about this! Great video! Thanks for sharing:)
Well thanks for watching Joe👊🏻😁
And if you got a bit of spare time buddy why not check out some of my newer videos I’m sure there’ll be something that you like👌🏻
I love so many elements of this video. On the verge of HowToBasic style-wise. The "why" of it seems to be - just to see what happens. Something I would do. Full sleeve tattoo. Nice. Furnace made out of a keg - the cherry on the top.
I reckon you synthesised magnetite from your pyrite using the process of calorgenation: imbuing the composition of the rock mineral with the surrounding 'air' using heat. The surrounding air replaces the lost sulphur. Understandable why iron pyrite is not magnetic before heating yet after heating it is very magnetic. I notice also the pyrite was unable to be poured from the crucible so was not imho molten. All good stuff nevertheless.
Calorgenation? You mean reduction and oxidation. Half of the process used to extract gold from pyrite. The only instance of the word 'calorgenation' on the entire internet stems from your channel, which appears to be full of pseudoscientific woowoo and nonsense.
@@bashkillszombies nooooo Calorgenation is a process by which a substance is imbued by the srrounding 'air through heat! Think of heating a metal in an environment filled with nitrogen. The substance will be imbued with nitrogen - can't be down to oxidation because there is no oxygen in that environment!
@@bashkillszombies hi I have lots of this pyrite can u teach how to extract gold from it.. please give some advice
This is actually how you can collect sulfur. Put a bunch of fool's gold in a pot, connect it to another pot with a pipe and then superheat the fool's gold until all the sulfur heats out of it, leaving behind only iron!
End result is two very useful elements instead of a single seemingly useless one.
By the way gold and silver are just a mix of lead + copper + sulfur, that clarify why gold is resistant to acids and alkalis.
it also explain why gold is shiny and soft.
Matey, Love you Very Much, May God bless you with more❣️
Wow that's crazy ! I'd have never expected that result ! Thanks for sharing !
No worries my friend I’m glad you liked it👍🏻. Also that powder at the end is extremely magnetic I forgot to show that in the video😁
That's cool ! I'd like to see that magnetism in another video ! It would also be interesting to know how it became magnetic. Sounds like you discovered a way to create magnetic powder. But kind of reminds me of the ink toner powder in old copy machines sticking to a statically charged drum to make photocopy's on paper. :)
4:04
Perhaps you could cast a pestle for grounding up stuff like this in the future
maybe one day buddy . I do have a ceramic one in me kitchen but ill get in trouble if i used that in my shed. 😁
Thank you for posting this so I didn't waste my time and fuel. I guess it makes sense.
Glad it helped matey 😁👍🏻
You oxidize it first and then you reduce it with flux.
I love your videos cuz you don’t show crap that doesn’t have to do with the video
Let down at the end, but extremely interesting. Wonder what happened chemically? Sulfur just evaporated & left the raw iron behind? Wonder how it forms naturally if this is the case when it's heated.
god knows mate ? for all i know there could still be a heap of sulfur left in the powder, i just say it how it looks to me.Im usually wrong but my vids arnt very popular so i wont be upsetting too many people if i get it wrong ;)
From what I know this stuff can only be made in environments without oxygen
RealRuler2112 I'm guessing it left iron oxide behind because the sulphur has a lower burning temp?
At a guess, the FeS2 underwent thermal decomposition into iron (II) sulfide and elemental sulfur, which then oxidized into sulfur dioxide.
My guess is someone else has already explained the chemistry by now, but I'm not seeing it in the comments.
I've been trying to figure out a way to create synthetic pyrite and came across your video. I found your video interesting that you are doing what I want to do in reverse. :)
Pyrite is iron (II) disulfide (FeS2) and heating it in a furnace which isn't free of oxygen will react with the FeS2 to produce FeS, Fe(II),(III) oxides and SO2. SO2 is sulfur dioxide and is the strong smell you observed. It's the same fumes which come out of fresh cut onions and this forms sulfuric acid in your eyes when coming in contact with your tears. It will also produce sulfuric acid in your lungs if you breathe it in. I'm just stating factoids here about the sulfuric acid and not criticizing anything about your video. I'm guessing more sulfuric acid is produced in your eyes from onions cut indoors rather than getting in contact with the fumes from your furnace while outside.
As an additional side note. The remains you have ground up is a mix of iron sulfide and iron (II) and (III) oxides. Due to the very hot flame in your awesome DIY Keg furnace (which I'm jealous of), I wouldn't be surprised if most of what you have in the end is iron (II), (III) oxide. Being as black as it is, I suspect most of the iron sulfide is spent so the remains are likely to be a mixture of iron (II), (III) oxide with very little remaining iron sulfide. Iron (II), (III) oxide is also known as magnetite, so that's mainly what you produced.
Thanks Matt that was quite very interesting you sound like a professor or science teacher 😁. Yeah I didn’t really know what to expect going into this but I thought I would film it as I was sure a lot of other people were probably interested also👍🏻😉
I appreciate that compliment. I'm just an amateur home chemist. I took chemistry up as a hobby last year in September. I study every day and perform experiments either every day or several times a week. I still feel lost on so many occasions and I know I just have to keep working on improving my knowledge.
I've mostly been studying iron and copper compounds/salts, aluminum and corundum as I have been working on making synthetic ruby and sapphire via the Verneuil process (flame fusion method). I've also been creating my own high alumina refractory ceramics and I have a video holding a piece in my bare hand using a blow torch to get the ceramic white hot. I had to cut it short because I was too close to my chair and the fake leather started to melt and smoke. LOL.
Even my original post contained information that wasn't quite fully accurate, but I feel it was accurate enough. There are other by products such as sulfur trioxide which is the main compound to produce sulfuric acid. Also, the roast of the iron sulfide would also produce hydrogen sulfide, which is the rotten egg smell.--I am anosmic, which means I don't have a sense of smell at all. I don't know if I stated incorrectly in my original post that sulfur dioxide is the smell, but if I did, that's not correct. I'll re-read what I wrote.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed your video and I look forward to seeing more. A few months ago I obtained around 40 lbs of calcium carbide and I've only a couple ideas of what to use it for. I live in an apartment community, so carbide cannons are kind of off limits. I'm working on a small acetylene torch design using the calcium carbide, but it's taking me a while because I'm really concerned with safety for this particular project.
*edited again* Yep. I did inaccurately state that the smell was from the SO2 (that's not actually inaccurate, SO2 has a pungent smell from what I read). That was actually the hydrogen sulfide you smelled, possibly, but considering your furnace, I don't know how much hydrogen sulfide was available from the reaction since H2S is flammable.--it was most likely just the SO2 you smelled as I stated in the original post. I made my own hydrogen sulfide (H2S) detector using lead acetate and filter paper. It works great and it's saved me a couple times.
Sounds extremely confusing so that would probably mean it’s all correct👍🏻🤔
Yeah Can never be too careful with all this chemical stuff.
99% of my melts I now use an full facemask with an industrial respirator so I can now make sure not to enjoy the dangerous smells I create in my garage😮🤭
Okay so I had something interesting happen with pyrite. I thought it was meteorite and mostly iron, so in a crucible I put old drill bits and some bits of 1095 and a chain. I crushed it up and used it as iron powder, then added some graphite and then crushed glass so its air tight. The steel didn't melt, but the pyrite actually did, and fused to the steel. It is incredibly beautiful but I don't know if the iron is pure, i've yet to work the pieces yet.
Thank you so much. I was looking for a quick solution to convert lead into golden lead by transferring the paint of pyrite to lead.
By the way gold and silver are mix of lead + copper + sulfur, that clarify why gold is resistant to acids and alkalis.
it also explain the softness of gold.
I believe that you just created a video for science class. Well done.
Thanks mate I appreciate your comment. I’m just disappointed I left out the bit where I checked the powder at the end and it was extremely magnetic , when I was editing I left that bit out accidentally🤦🏻♂️
After burning pyrite
“WELL SHIT THATS 37 BUX DOWN THE DRAIN
The black powder is probably the same stuff that you find when panning for gold. I’ll bet it’s magnetic. It’s a type of iron oxide
Sure is mate very magnetic I forgot to show that in the video 👍🏻
Fools gold is actually pyrite which forms in cubes big chunks are really cool
Well done video. Good job.
Basically, Iron Pyrite is useless, right?
Very interesting. Would have been a cool ingot if it had melted into liquid.
Wow thats crazy I didn't know anything about fool's gold....
I was going to try the same thing and then I watched this video. I wonder if you could take the black sand and extrude the gold in it using a centrifuge or acid????
thank you. I also did all these procedures and the end result was nothing just black powder.
nah, you should get the powder and put a magnet next to it the pyrite when melted should burn the sulfur away and give you iron and since the iron was spread apart then you should get magnetite which is a iron oxide, very magnetic!!!
Yes matey it is extremely magnetic but unfortunately I didn’t show that part in the video I stuffed up and deleted that part while editing 🤷🏻♂️.
lol, cool. its pretty much black sand
I thought iron oxide was just simply rust.
heat it up in the air will give iron oxide in solid SO2 goes in air, then now we can add some carbon inside to make some iron (steel, depend on how much carbon)
that sounds too technical for this channel matey ;)
bigstackD but the gas igniting still cool
+Stephen Su yeah gas is a pretty awesome. I wish it was safe to blow shit up that would be cool but I suppose if it was then everyone would do it and the coolness factor would soon dwindle.
Not what I expected very cool
Yeah I hear ya matey , I was pretty disappointed myself but I’ve never seen a video where they actually show the whole process so had to do it myself but disappointed as I would’ve loved To have a fools gold ingot it’s a shame that’s not possible. Also that power at the end was extremely magnetic but I accidentally edited that bit out👍🏻
Man you've done it all bro glad to see you got your recognition
Thanks for this experiment sir👍
If you put anything made of iron pyrite near an open fire or flame, would it catch on fire instantly?
Actually you shouldn't smell it ,because when u burn sulfur it will turn to SO and then SO2 and then SO3, when SO3 touches water then It will turn into sulfuric acid
Yeah I won’t be melting it again I was just curious what would happen 😉. I always melt all my metals etc in a well ventilated area and when fumes get to high I have a pretty good industrial ventilator/face mask I use👍🏻.
So, is this why you don't melt iron (minus the sulfur stench, of course)?
So, running it through the forge burned off the sulfur, weakened the crystals, and left mostly just iron powder behind?
sulphur smell was caused by the sulphur in the FeS2
Thank u I was wondering what would happen if u melting the fool gold.
Wow....some of that is worth some good money man! Especially in crystal form. Some people crush it first then roast it and THEN smelt it (with a cone shaped mold!) And what you're left with can be a nice little picker of real gold. Just be careful what kind of pyrite it is. Some have arsenic and you have to be very careful not to breath any fumes in! Happy hunting buddy!
Thanks. Indeed to see this one. Can I request a generic video on fluxes?
I love experiments and this is a good one! Now we know that we shouldn't use pyrite in casting of some stuff.... :) It's interesting if this mineral exploded because of moisture or something else.
kleadus gaming said and i quote ''The reason the fools gold was popping is because of the liquid/moisture in the mineral it's self. Since the moisture is trapped in there it pops. Same thing with salt" . An interesting experiment if nothing else ;)
Cool. I thought the same. :)
The popping was probably because of voids in the matrix. as you heat them the air content expands and cracks the rock.
I wonder if this can be used as a substitute for graphite in molds and crucibles?
thank you this video answered a lot of questions.
Yeah I always wondered myself . Also all that powder that was left is highly magnetic. 👍🏻
I wonder what would happen if that burnt stuff went into a diamond machine???
The pyrite is very strange like watching a your video that ends without ingots!!!
Now what would happen if you heated the powder?
What do you think the powder could be used for?
Wow, thanks. Great video.
Very interesting and informative. 👍
I've got a piece the size of a golf ball in my truck all time I do feel some something?🤔
I just wonder if bring the temperature up to Iron smelting temperature would make an ingot. Might have to use a sealed crusable. If I had the equipment I would try it.
+wolfman887 yeah I'm thinking it might but my crucibles are rated to 1500 degrees Celsius and I'll be going a bit higher than that to melt it. I have the powder set aside so maybe at a later date it's something I can look at. It would be pretty cool turning powder into an ingot.👍🏻
bigstackD that would be wonderful to watch. Might be able to make somthing useful out of it if the ingot takes.
I wish you'd been able to cooperate with a chemist, like Cody from CodysLab.
I thought you would end up like a solid gold looking piece with a small amount of waste
But if there was 2000 or 3000 degrees, than steel can not melt them to condition of liquid?
Will commenting on all 250+ vids get me a solid chance in the giveaway? I love your videos 😁😎. Ingot is my favorite pupper on the tubes!
Smells like sulfur because the mineral's chemical composition is iron sulfide. Nice video!
Cheers matey . And all the powder is obviously magnetic I was supposed to have added that to the video but left it out while editing somehow 😏
Cool video man. Appreciated!
Cheers matey thanx for watching 👍🏻
It sure wasn't what I expected at all to be honest.
Yeah me either and I couldn’t find fools gold melting anywhere on youtube so thought ide do it myself🤷🏻♂️👍🏻
Do you have a video of the pirate key? (Goonies)
Neat, would you smelt the powder and turn them to iron bars or something?
Unfortunately I can’t even get my furnace close to hot enough to melt iron . That’s around 1530°C I think . My furnace only gets around 1200°C👍🏻
Well that was very educational I didn't know that about pyrite. I thought it could be valuable like gold. Wrong properties I guess
That's cool it looks like black sand
Before it was sulfide and after that is oxidized with oxygen air
Those rocks look like the same they use on older railroad tracks
I love your videos.
I see we're having the same thing for dinner.
well im having steak tonight👍
Very entertaining if not quite what you planned for :)
Yeah i was hoping the iron ore would go molten but i was way off. i have been told the powder once heated up to around 1540 Degrees Celsius will become molten but my furnace cant get that high not without a 2nd burner atleast.
The thing with fools gold is that it actually does have a very tiny amount of real gold in it.
Interesting video Mr
Soon yah...the fools gold popping is the sulfur popping. If you crush fools gold and heat it in a regular furnace and catch the smoke you have a source of sulfur for gun powder
question answered at least - thumbs up
No one has said that per Wikipedia FeS2 decomposes into FeS + S at ~ 540 C yet?
Got to do a second try with chemicals and acid and all that good stuff
Cool! It’s black sand!!!
A ton of my pyrite-10+20, roasted, ground to pass 40, tabled = $46,000+-.
Repeatable top flight assay labs. What say my internet friends? Lots of it choking my sluice boxes and shot through bedrock.
I have absolutely no idea what the hell you’re talking about but I give you a heart anyway🤔
@@bigstackD well, every 10 cubic yards of material I feed my wash plant fills my sluice box with this dang pyrite and then the gold I’m trying to capture out spits out the box. Jig plant is next
Iron ores would usually go into a bloomery to make the ingot.
You are correct my friend👍
Should have panned it out just to be thorough ....ya never know what if there is fine gold hidden in it?
So, if I heat the pyrite sand particles with an open flame, it pops. Will gold do the same thing, or will I end up with remaining gold particles while the pyrite will have blown out of the ceramic cup? Just asking... I have dirty gold ore with pyrite and quartz. Did the muriatic acid bath and removed the magnetic particles. The remaining ore is still very dirty. Any suggestions?
You'll need aqua regia to get the gold.
I tried to hammer a piece once and it just exploded into dust and very small pieces.
So is it basically impossible to reforge?
Sometimes you just have to experiment. Hey I would have tried it.
hmmm?
iron and sulphur separated?
any chance of a spectrometer test on the powder?
i wish i had 1 of those that would be great. Im in no way an expert and for all i know there could still be 50/50 iron sulfur mix in the end result ,i just say it as i see it my friend;)
Fools gold or Nordic gold? Yeah, I’m gonna pick Nordic every time!
Great video, thanks.