NONE NO SOAP seasoning your pan............ the best way is to use gravel to scratch the inside pan surface, but you can use steel wool or 240 grit emery paper... you want to rough up the inside of the pan including the riffle area. go in all directions not just a circle or back in forth... the rougher you get the pan the better but you don't want to put deep groves in it... the rough surface will give the black sand and gold something to hold on to when panning... ALSO never use soap when finish panning in a tub.. use any jet dry agent ie. jet dry get dry is a finish rise cycle agent used in dish waters. the reason not to use soap (dawn ) or any other
soap is soap has perfume in it and perfume ia a oil base product and oil makes gold float.....

2 dogs
menber PLP, WMA, world museum of mines, new 49ers, V.P. last chance miners, small scale mining equipment fabricator.

I used liquid Dawn original scent. Don't use anything with citrus scent, that has oils in it. I also cleaned it with a green scrub pad and warm water along with sand and gravel. Steel wool has oils on it so don't use it. I bought two new pans at the gold show this spring and had a very hard time getting them seasoned. Maybe a new mold release agent was used. Scrub it until it looks old and water does not bead up on it.
Another tip, when panning don't have lotions or sun screen on your hands otherwise the gold will float out of the pan.

Scott L.

I use dawn soap and the green scrubber pad that is used for dishes .Like what was said do nor use any soap that has lemon or orange as cents as it gets its sent from the oil from the peelings .I only use dawn or jet dry too kill the surface tension of the water.

guys here's the deal................... DON'T get in the habit of using SOAP any SOAP....... jet dry type products only.... if your using a recirculating system and your water is getting cloudy and muddy looking, use CLAY BE GONE ( sold at most mining outfitters on the web ) the problem with soap is it suds up bad and your fine and flour gold will float out the end of your equipment. i know your using a tub or safety pan to catch what get past but unless you like going over and over the same material don't use soap... i don't know who started this soap idea but they started you down the wrong path..
thanks again for your time

2 dogs
MEMBER PLP,WMA, WOULD MUSEUM OF MINES NEW49ERS, GPAA, V.P.LAST CHANCE GOLD MINERS small mining equipment fabricators

Dennis,

I respect your opinion but care to differ,

I have used dawn to float gold and sink gold, what the determining factor is, is how you use it. I know you preach Jet Dry but a lot of people will spend more than what their return of gold is using it. How you use your soap is really determined by the gold you are finding. If you have really lightweight flat gold and really dense sands that gold will rise to the top of the sand, but if you have coarse material and chunky gold that material will sink, as will flour gold.

Try an experiment for me, pour a lot of soap into a bucket of materials and then wash them out and concentrate that material. What you will find is you have some floating gold. But you can take the same material and add only a little soap and have it all sink to the bottom of your pan, it's just how you use it.

I will stick with "Special D", good old fashioned Dawn Dish soap, it gets the job done.

My wife tells me I should use Palmolive because it hardens fingernails, but my fingernails have never been harder and stronger. :-)

thanks for yalls feedback, I ended up using dawn orginal, then the next day I went out and panned out the dirt in one of my 5 gallon buckets and yreka!!! I got some flakes of gold!!! And Dennis Janka the tutorial on how to pan that came with the package you get for your membership is where I got the idea from, since I am a beginner at gold panning I followed that tutorial on point

ben your view is well taken. thank you i guess i got a few really upset over this soap thing. could tell from there post using last names and all. i've been prospecting ,mining for about 20 years now and soap was a no no
old school i guess . i will try your idea and go from there. as they say never to old to learn.... once again if i got someone mad that wasn't my intent... but please remember this everyone here has ideas and suggestions
some good some not so good try to respect every ones view as ben has done..

2 dogs

Dennis,

You didn't get anybody upset, everybody has their own techniques. If I was using a black magic or a miller table to process my fines Jet Dry would probably be the best option, you can't have any foam using those or you will lose your gold, but when talking about just panning a few drops of Dawn in a tub will go a long way.

I use to not use anything, but I repanned a batch of dirt I had from other areas using Dawn for the first time and I was stunned at how much gold I had missed, truly embarrassed. This is why I always go through my material twice and change techniques, pans, and equipment. The gold you find on one claim will be completely different than a claim 30 miles upstream. it just teaches us to remain flexible to the area and gold we are dealing with.

If I end up buying a Gold Cube Jet Dry will be the only choice for processing fines.

As for prepping new pans I just dump some soap and sand in them and scrub them down thoroughly, once they dry with a worn whitish coat to them instead of a shiny coat they are ready. I tell people to just avoid sharp rocks because it will leave gashes in the plastic. But I would rather use a pan that is almost completely worn out than a new one any day.

Coming from an auto paint and body background, I used lacquer thinner or plastic prep. When replacing a plastic bumper cover, they come raw plastic, we would set them in the sun for several hours to get good and hot, then wipe them down with lacquer thinner and a grey scotch brite pad.

I have done a couple pans this way and it works great. There are many ways to skin a cat.

Haha Yep Lacquer thinner is a great degreaser and waxy film remover. Good for removing fiberglass resin and bondo from your hands too.