[Jewelry making - Article 00099] - Re: [Orchid] The Joy of Citrus pickle

[Trevor F]

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>     It seems so much more environmentally friendly .... 

Hello Eve,

    Up until the point that you've got a bunch of copper oxides dissolved
    in it yes I suppose it is. 

    The main selling points for me are that it's really easy to come by
    (Sparex and pool stuff are not easy to find where I'm living these
    days), you'll never end up with brown sludge floating around in your
    pickle pot (which has happened to me from a crappy batch of Sparex),
    it doesn't care whether you stick your ferrous tongs or wires in it
    (doesn't plate out the copper), and it doesn't give off nasties when
    you warm it up. Also gives me something less to worry about the cats
    getting into. 

    Actually I should mention one thing to be careful about with the
    citric --not citrus as I'd mistakenly said in my original post--
    pickle. I have noticed a fairly vigorous reaction to any flux or borax
    glass remaining on the piece after soldering. Nothing scary or
    anything but it does froth up a bit for a couple seconds so be
    forewarned. First time it happened it startled me and there could
    have been an accident. 

    I usually quench in water then drop the work into the pickle so you
    won't notice the reaction there because the quenching will almost
    certainly flush most or all of the flux remnants away. But in the case
    where I've had a complicated set up the piece will already be cool by
    the time I've extracted it and then it's straight into the pickle pot
    since there's no need to quench. Obviously there's a chance for flux
    glass or whatever in this case and that's when you'll see the
    reaction. 

Cheers, 
Trevor F.

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