Processing used copper pipe

[sou023]

Hi,

Any suggestions on processing of copper piping? The pipes were recovered as stolen and are on the older side. They are relatively clean.
My thoughts are CA with a dye stain. Has anyone tried this?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Pat]

When in doubt . . . experiment.

I presume you have a relatively large amount of this pipe. It occurs to me that gun bluing might be a good technique. Straight visual exam under good light would definitely be a first exam, as sweat or oils might have discolored the old tarnish on the pipe. Then try taking several foot-long sections of the pipe (go ahead and cut it with a hacksaw) and planting test prints on the test sections. Try CA/R6G on one section, gun bluing on another section, maybe a sensitive powder on another, and see what works the best. Then process the bulk of the pipe with the method that works best. True, you will have sacrificed a small portion of the evidence. But you will have ensured the best method was used on the bulk of the evidence. I think the trade-off is justifiable and easily explainable in court if need be.

[fishhikekayakbike]

I have recently processed copper with cyanoacrylate fuming followed by basic yellow 40 dye stain and it worked beautifully.

[Kelly Zirngibl]

I have processed a few copper pipe cases. I used visual, IL, CA, R6G, Ardrox, black powder techniques. I was able to develop suitable latent prints using the R6G and ardrox dye stains. Some of the latents that were developed using rhodamine were improved with the ardrox application.

[sou023]

Thanks for the responses.