I have a question that has lingered in my brain for awhile…
sometimes, but not always, my items come out of the pickle with non-uniform dull dark grey areas…
once, after sprinkling in additional pickle-it, while items were in the pot, the items came out with dark grey streaks…possibly where the pickle-it grains made contact and dissolved creating a downward gravitational streak…
i am just curious why this happens…?…too much pickle-it?…to little…?…
perhaps contination from burned yellow ochre (iron)
I don’t think this is what your problem is. But I have had a similar issue and think there was contamination with aluminum. Not sure if this makes sense.
I forgot to mention that the most recent time I had this happen I realized the ceramic crock in my pickle pot had developed some cracks. I surmise that the aluminum from the heating part of the pickle pot may have leached into the pickle solution. Again, not sure just a theory I threw the whole thing away and started with a new pickle pot and fresh pickle.
Hi,
haha! funny you should mention…i got a new 3 quart medium oval size one!…
but, this randomly happened on my okd round small pot too…it must be the ratio of citric acid to water…or ochre residue (i try to clean/ brush off before, but it is tenacious…
i use a silicone pan splatter lid…i wanted to avoid the metal rim on the glass lid…
I have tried citric acid, but really haven’t gotten to where it is my go to. I might try 20% vinegar since I use it to kill weeds in my gardens. I use pH down. My crockpot stopped working years ago and I just use pH down pickle at room temperature in the cold crockpot. My metal will often times have a gray cast to it. I really don’t worry about it since it solders just fine. When I need to remove a lot of firescale, I put some new pickle in a stainless steel pot and suspend it over a torch to give the piece a good boil in new pickle. Everything gets white real fast. I just did that with the wire that I was drawing when I took the trip across my shop into the bike that was on the trainer. If you didn’t read about that, it was a real adventure. I also use a tall calibrated glass cylinder to remove the red scale from over heated brass. I mix a very small batch of new pickle and H2O2 in the cylinder, add the bracelet that is still straight at the time and the red stain disappears. There is a lot of chemistry here, but it all works for me and I can control it to a desired end, so I don’t really worry about why it works. My two cents…Rob
I keep thinking of all that acid going into the air in my shop. I may go back to my boric acid/drnatured alcohol solution and burn it off. I love the redults. Im dying to know what this guy is using:
Hi Julie,
for more years than i can remember the pickle i use is sulfuric acid. (gasp} it is cut 10/1 with plain tap water here in NW Ohio. it is held in a plastic container mixed nuts came in with a wide mouth. it has a screw lid. its not heated. I do mostly silver but sometimes red brass or copper too it never fails. the acid i use is for battery refreshing i bought it at Sears . pour the acid in the water sometimes the other way might rile up the acid. dont do that. the container is marked by me POISON/ ACID. It stays at the back of my bench 24/7.
as an aside perhaps the citric acid is not pure & had some other additive in it to cause your trouble. good luck,
Kent
