2 Different Stains, Surfaces

[AnnaK]

Argh!

I spent two years of my life with black stains on my hands from silver nitrate which had oxidized.

For the formica you can try Jeweller's Rouge, a fine red powder used to remove silver oxide. It may dull the formica surface but would that be worse than the present stain?

Can't help with the concrete, sorry.

[polyvue]

Argh!

I spent two years of my life with black stains on my hands from silver nitrate which had oxidized.

For the formica you can try Jeweller's Rouge, a fine red powder used to remove silver oxide. It may dull the formica surface but would that be worse than the present stain?

Can't help with the concrete, sorry.

I want to thank you for suggesting Jeweler's Rouge because it led me to experiment by applying regular silver polish (Wright's Silver Cream) to the silver nitrate stains. This worked well, removing 90% or more of the visible stain on first application. The product MSDS lists only two components: microcrystalline silica and sodium carbonate [soda ash!]

There are probably other ways to lift silver nitrate stains from hard surfaces. I didn't think to try a powdered cleanser, such as Bon Ami, before the experiment, so am unable to judge its effectiveness; nor was iron oxide paste (Jeweller's Rouge) tried. The sodium hypochlorite, surfactants and carboxylic acids in the dishwashing liquid, bleach and spray cleaner had no obvious effect, but constituent strength (household concentrations) and duration of contact (< 1 min.) preclude negative inference.

I’m just very glad it worked. Onward now to resolving (dissolving?) acid-stained concrete….

[AnnaK]

I'm glad it was mostly successful and hope you'll find something to deal with the HCl stain as well.