Wax on stones

It’s called “Citrisolve” or commonly known as Citric Acid. (sp?)
Google it and see what it points to.

Works great, especially when wax gets under those tightly set
baguettes !

Margie Mersky
www.mmwaxmodels.com

Don, you might try steam cleaning, or consider acquiring an
ultrasonic cleaner with heater. You’ll love it! There are many good
solvent cleaners as well, to soak the items in for a few minutes,
then blast with the strongest hot water tap you can muster. It won’t
hurt the stones if you don’t forget them in the soak if porous or
pearls.

Pat

Don T.,

Put orange clean or the orange wax solvent in a small glass jar and
put your ring in your ultrasonic and let it soften up then steam it
off. It may take several rounds to get it out. Try making a paste of
baking soda and work in and under the stones before you polish. The
baking soda will dissolve in the ultrasonic.

Cathy

It's called "Citrisolve" or commonly known as Citric Acid. 

Hello Margie,

Are you sure about those names? I’ve used both Citrisolve and Citric
Acid and in my experience they are not the same thing at all.

Citrisolve is, according to www.citrisolve.com, “based on a
biodegradable citrus oil solvent” which is found naturally in the
skins of citrus fruits. The active ingredient is a monocyclic terpene
hydrocarbon. It is sold as a cleaning product or solvent in fluid
form with a strong citrus odor.

Citrisolve and similar products are indeed great for dissolving and
removing stuff like wax and the glue from sticky labels (a little of
the oil squeezed directly from skin of a citrus fruit itself will do
in a pinch). Citrisolve is also great for cleaning dirty bicycle
chains. This stuff is not edible.

Citric Acid (aka 2-hydroxy-1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid) is an
organic carboxylic acid typically found in the juice of citrus fruits
and used in the food industry as a souring agent. It is usually sold
as a white powder or as fine white granules.

Citric Acid also happens to make a very satisfactory substitute for
Sparex et al for use as a pickling solution in gold and silver work.

I believe you will find that the two are not interchangeable.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light

Hi all,

A cigarette light or match works well too! 

Michael Knight

Lighter fluid will dissolve most waxes. I have used it to polish
some of the waxes as well. The softer waxes will of course dissolve
faster.

RJ

Trevor - well I surely didn’t intentionally mean to confuse
anyone:) I DO know the difference between the two products… and
some of the people I’ve worked with have called Citrisolve “citric
acid” because it’s a citrus oil product… GooGone is similar to
Citrisolve. Bad habits are hard to break… pardon my improper
interchange of words.

Citric Acid is used in many beef dishes (Borsht for one) to
tenderize and give flavor to the meat. As you are mixing you
pickling solution you are doing a little “cooking” so to say !

Happy cleaning and cooking !

... some of the people I've worked with have called Citrisolve
"citric acid" because it's a citrus oil product.... 

Margie: Understood, though that is an unfortunate habit of
misnaming. I suppose one could call orange juice “citric acid” too if
one really wanted to since it is after all a solution that contains
citric acid. So one imagines the following conversation:

Jeff: Pass the citric acid please.
Nan: Clear and cloudy.
Jeff: Cloudy? What do you mean “cloudy”?
Nan: It’s always cloudy.
Jeff: Really? Since when?
Nan: Since always. You know, “pulp”?
Jeff: You mean “powder”?
Nan: Well sure, but I like the pulpy stuff better.
Jeff: “Pulpy” pickle? You’re kidding right?
Nan: No, no. The juice.
Jeff: Who said anything about juice?

And so on. My take on this is that it’s tough enough naming things
properly so that we know what we’re talking about without
intentionally misnaming them. I suspect that I and the people you’ve
worked with have to agree to disagree on this one.

Cheers,
Trevor F.
in The City of Light