Experience with 'black magic' pickle?

Jewelry Discussion
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Hi All-

I just bought a container of ‘environmentally friendly’ pickle
called Black Magic. Does anyone have any experience with this? I was
hesitating between this and my normal Sparex but I liked the idea of
a pickle that was slighty less toxic. Well, it appears to be slightly
less effective (like not at all) as well and I had to go back for the
Sparex. I’d like to hear your experiences, maybe it’s just me.

Thanks
Rai

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I just bought a container of 'environmentally friendly' pickle
called Black Magic. Does anyone have any experience with this? I
was hesitating between this and my normal Sparex but I liked the
idea of a pickle that was slighty less toxic.

I have no clue what this Black Magic stuff is but if enviro-happy
pickle is of interest to you you should try citric acid. You can buy
it for about $3 per pound, give or take, at most ethnic grocers
(especially Indian and Jewish markets). You can’t get much more
environmentally friendly than the “sour” in citrus fruits, though
adding a bunch of copper via the pickling process isn’t going to do
the enviro aspect of it much good. Anyway, the point is that it’s
way safe, pretty cheap and works great. It’s one of the best kept
shop secrets I know of.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light
Visit TouchMetal.com at http://www.touchmetal.com

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I liked the idea of a pickle that was slighty less toxic. Well, it
appears to be slightly less effective (like not at all)

Just use citric acid! Non toxic, and, though I was told it was
slower, I don’t notice any difference at all-- it is perfectly
satisfactory. I bought a 10 lb box on line somewhere for about
$2.50/lb, I think.

Noel

1 Like
4 
Just use citric acid! Non toxic, and, though I was told it was
slower, I don't notice any difference at all-- it is perfectly
satisfactory. I bought a 10 lb box on line somewhere for about
$2.50/lb, I think.

Wowzas. I’ll have to check that out. I’d never heard of citric acid
as a pickling solution. Do I need to do anything special to prep the
piece before soldering? I called the Black Magic solution people and
they told me the pickle wasn’t effective because I wasn’t using
another product of theirs (surprise) called ‘magic flame’, which is a
flame coat used to help prevent firescale. Call me uninformed but I
never have soldered anything with a flamecoat, is this standard
practice? Back in school they never mentioned it either…

Thanks again for the citric acid advice. Cheers
Rachel