Wow. I’d been having that annoying brown gunk too but never thought
to attribute it to inferior sparex. I switched to citric acid which
works great.
I use citric acid from King Arthur’s flour. Not too expensive and it
works well.
MA
I use citric acid from King Arthur's flour. Not too expensive and it works well.
I’m another citric acid fan. Although available locally as a canning
ingredient, it’s really inexpensive IF you order from suppliers of
ingredients for bath bombs. One website sells 10 pounds for about
$22. That amount will last you the rest of your life! Usually these
companies also carry such goodies as fragrances, essential oils,
bees’ wax, flavoring and such. Interestingand kinda’ fun browsing.
Judy in Kansas, who will be practicing hard for tomorrow’s coral
extravaganza! Happy holidays to all and may your sales be excellent.
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Concerning the grey color:
I noticed this when I used the Vinegar Salt pickle (using kosher
salt). I started out with that mix, and for a variety of reasons
(mainly to try something new and experiment) I switched to ‘safety
pickle’ (purchased from Contenti, I believe). I’ve been wondering
where the brown gunk came from!
As for the greying of pieces, here’s my experience.
If a piece of silver is left in HOT vinegar/salt pickle mix, after
’too long’ - more than a few minutes, anyway - it turned grey. I
panicked! My first instinct was to neutralize, rinse, and fire/torch
the piece to oxidize. Then I dropped it back in the same offending
pickle, but made sure to take it out as soon as I could. Brass brush
or a little baking soda on wet fingers and it was good as new! I’ve
since had to do this a number of times because my pickle pot tends to
really get hot by the end of the day.
It’s worked for me on everything I turned grey. And for me the
greying only happened in the heated pickle mixture, as far as I
recall. I left things in a cold pickle for a full day or overnight
without the same issue but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’ve
been told that different salts have differing effects on the pickle’s
efficiency, but no real clue if it is the adversary in this
particular problem.
Oh, regarding pouring the pickle on weeds: Using your spent vinegar
pickle, and watering it in to the surrounding soil, you can turn your
hydrangea’s blue for the next season. The more acidic the soil the
bluer the flowers.
The article I read didn’t mention neutralizing the vinegar, but I
imagine that if one did toss in baking soda there would still be
enough acid to modify the soil’s pH level. Too much alkaline, and the
flowers are pink, but not pink-er. I don’t know anymore detail than
that, so try at your own risk.
Cheers,
Becky
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I didn’t see it mentioned, but if you’re using different metals…for your pickle; use one vinegar/salt solution for copper/ brass projects. Use a separate for silver. In a pinch you may take a quantity of the copper/brass pickle out, and add a few drop of hydrogen peroxide and then use on your silver pieces. ( it dissipates so you’d need to re add hydrogen peroxide if you need to do again later).
Also, I’ve used net bags for very small items… so you aren’t standing over the pickle pot trying to fish them out. For larger pieces ( when using a larger crock pot) I found plastic dishwasher “ cages”( made for washing things like baby bottle nipples) this makes it super fast/ easy to remove projects from the pickle!
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Recently some of my pieces have turned the dull gray, even in citric acid pickle. What actually causes this? I have been able to use an abrasive to clean, put like others have said, never achieve a good polish. Now this has happened to chains, which I cannot use an abrasive on. Is there any chemical way to rid them of the dull gray? If not, a lot of work down the drain for me. Help!
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I had this problem with vinegar/salt pickle repeatedly. Never with fresh pickle but after only a couple days with a new batch.
Last time was with a batch of jump rings. I laid them out flat on charcoal and hit them with a torch - annealed them basically - and they turned bright again. I saw this mentioned in the long thread but nobody else commented.
But really? I switched to pHdown and have not had the problem since.
I hope reheating your chain will do the trick.
Melissa
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