[Jewelry making - Article 01708] - Re: [Orchid] Safe pickle?

[Rick Copeland]

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>     And why put clay or soap into the product? 

    I believe one source of sodium bisulphate is the result of some
    chemical process used in manufacturing. That is where the other
    impurities come from. I couldn't find anything on the net to support
    this but I believe it has been discussed on Orchid and should be in
    the archives. Weeding it out is the problem given the number of hits
    searching Orchid for words like "sodium bisulphate" and "pickle".
    Maybe someone with a sharper memory or better search techniques than
    I can cite the source. 

    For years I've been using what I thought was Sparax. The local rock
    shop bought in bulk and repackaged it as pickle and in parenthesis
    (Sparax). So I had them order 45lbs of Sparax. Boy was I in for a
    disappointment. I found the brown slime that gathered on the top to
    be a menace and couldn't come up with a way to remove it. I called
    the manufacturer of Sparax, Krohn Industries. They said to merely
    blot the slime off with paper towels. Then got defensive when I asked
    them why the brown slime? They said it just showed up in some
    batches. Anyway, I remember using Sparax back in the 70's and not
    having the brown slime problem so something changed over the years. 

    After talking with the owner of the rock shop it ended up that they
    were buying Grobet's pickle in bulk and repackaging it with the
    misleading labeling. I still buy the pickle from them because of the
    convenience of having it prepackaged in one gallon mixes. But I
    always verify this is Grobet's product not Sparax. 

    BTW. I have a 45 lb bucket of Sparax (minus however much I used to
    mix up a gallon of pickle) that I will gladly give to anyone who
    wants to pick it up. I really don't want to get into shipping a
    caustic chemical. Contact me off list if interested.

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
Rocky Mountain Wonders
Colorado Springs, Colorado
http://rockymountainwonders.com
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