Sarah: a crockpot has a ceramic liner. Ceramic has a glass glaze on it
which the acid in pickle solution won’t touch. Some people have
recommended the tiny crockpots that don’t hold much liquid, however I used
once for awhile and you end up splashing alot out of it when in use. Get
the regular larger size standard crockpot. You will need to get copper
tongs as copper won’t react with the pickle in normal use. Of course DON’T
leave your tongs sitting in the pickle as you will saturate it with copper.
Keep the pickle pot covered except when you use it to avoid fumes. The
other thing you don’t want to do if accidentally dump something steel or
iron into the post when pickling, like binding wire or nails you use to
support the solder work. What happens then is you turn the pickle pot into
a battery and you will copper plate your silver or gold item! Also, keep a
dish of water next to your pot and dunk it in that after extracting. Then
next to that keep a dish of water with baking soda in it and then dunk it
in that to neutralize the acid. Mix up a full quart of pickle in hot water
and go to it…Dave
Art Jewelry for Conscious People
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