HELP needed

Can anyone please advise me on what acid and concentration I should use for pickling a Butch smokebox, during the silver soldering ?.

Thanks.

Hello Steve,

I can't help as I am not a model builder but there are plenty of others on the forum who would be able to tell you. This will bring it back to to their attention.

Regards

Brian

Hi Steve,

I just make up a solution of a litre of warm water and put around half a cup of citric acid crystals. This is not aggressive, nor dangerous, like sulphuric.

Just keep an eye on your work, no sweat.

I use citric acid as well. I use mine in a new budget Tesco kettle to warm it before pickling. I confess I never worked out the concentration, I just added a handful to an almost full kettle. It lasts a while.

Hi Steve,

Citric acid solution works well for pickling silver soldered items, may take a bit longer than using sulphuric acid (around 10%), you may be able to get it as car battery acid. Hydrochloric acid ("brick acid" ) can also be used for pickling, take care when using strong acids and take adequate precautions.
It has been discussed earlier, here.

Thor

Edited By Thor 🇳🇴 on 08/10/2021 10:31:54

Hi Steve

10gm of citric acid crystals per litre of water.

Regards

Keith

Edited By Keith Hale on 09/10/2021 14:51:45

The pickle I use for gold and silver jewellery is 10% H2so4. I tried Hcl many years ago, but didn't like it as much. I can't remember why.

Fumes from hydrocloric acid will rust everthing in sight.

HCl has no place in a machine shop.
Also note you now need a locence for any significant strength of Sulphuric acid including battery strength. Technically emptying the acid from a battery to use as a pickle is a crminal offence.

Never heard of that requirement so I had to look it up out of interest.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-introduces-tough-new-measure-to-prevent-acid-attacks

Thanks, everyone for the helpful replies, you gave.

A PLEA! It would be most helpful if when people post a question, rather than just saying "Help Needed" or similar they say "Help with pickling" - then people can judge better if it's worth reading the post.