On Jul 21, 7:06*am, wrote:
In rec.crafts.jewelry on or about Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:53:17 -0700 text
possibly written by "Peter W.. Rowe,"
was seen, saying:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:39:56 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry helen
wrote:

Hey Doc,

What's "safety alcohol"? *I've got denatured alcohol just like you
said (we call it methylated spirits). *Over here, they add a purple
dye to it but other than that, it's the same denatured alcohol as you
use.

There may actually be differences. *

Wow. I didn't know all that.
I was being facetious using the term "safety alcohol" because of
something Helen said on Orchid. Just kinda ribbin' her...

Denatured alcohol or methylated spirits are
both initially ethanol. *Same stuff as in alcoholic drinks. * In order to make
the stuff undrinkable, *done usually to avoid the taxes imposed on alcoholic
beverages, several types of agents can be added to make the stuff toxic.

snip

As I said at one point earlier on, I prefer to stir the boric/alcohol mix,
simply because that way I KNOW I've got enough on it, no matter what I'm doing.

The Useless Government (US gov't) has decided that boric acid is now
an insecticide and has added a bunch of regulatory rules (taxes) to
boric acid tripling the price. I buy mine now from a chemical/cleaning
supply house to be used for cleaning. It comes in a larger granulated
size rather than the usual dust. And it's MUCH less money (like $5.00
for 25lbs) But if you stir it it puts huge clots of glass-like stuff
on your work.

To answer Helen's question, yes, I mostly work in .999 or .985 silver,
but I also work in sterling.

Habit. * In many cases, it may be more than needed, but that causes no harm. If
Doc finds it adequate to just dip without stirring, it might be the same mix, or
it might be a little different than mine, or it might just be that for what he's
doing, it's working fine. *Who knows. * Everyone has slight differences in the
way they do the same tasks. * We'll go nuts if we try to figure out each and
every minor detail when it offers no real advantage one way or the other. *If it
works, go with it. *If not, modify the procedure...

cheers

Peter

Hey Doc,

I was being facetious using the term "safety alcohol" because of
something Helen said on Orchid. Just kinda ribbin' her...

I should have known you were being funny! But with our safety nannies
policing everything we do, safety alcohol was always a possibility,
although I thought it was something you lot used over the pond! ;-)

I have just stated that pure ethanol is toxic all by itself, even
before they add other agents to "make it toxic", but when I looked up
the MSDS for ethanol, it didn't mention that it is a carcinogen, as we
were told when I was at uni studying chemistry. I'll have to look it
up in my chemical catalogue I have on a shelf somewhere.

Helen
UK