[TheForge] Harden & temper

Fri Jun 17 19:12:45 EDT 2011

On Jun 17, 2011, at 4:01 PM, Bruce Freeman wrote:

> What" stuff," Pete?  A lye solution?  (What concentration?)  I can't
> envision solid lye being put in a carboy.
It's a viscus liquid, as i recall..could dig it out of the back of the "temporary building" if it matters.
> 
> Don't let us frighten you away from using lye at all.

I don't anticipate using it at this point.

>  Cold solutions
> of lye are much less dangerous than when there's any heat involved.

So i assumed, thanks.

> You still want to keep them out of your eyes, and to minimize skin
> contact (and immediately wash it off and treat with vinegar).  but I
> use lye quite a bit, especially recently.  Think of it like red hot
> metal.  You don't want that anywhere near your eyes either, and it's a
> LOT more destructive to skin than is lye, which you can wash away and
> neutralize.
> 
> Nonetheless, washing soda is a good, powerful caustic which is less
> dangerous than lye.

That's what i'm using presently and it seems to suffice.

>  Wear gloves while
> using it and keep it out of your eyes, but I would guess that you've
> got a  wee bit of time to wash it from  your eyes if you do get it in
> them.  Lye gives you almost no such time (unless it's very dilute).

Thanks for your expertise Bruce!
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 3:26 PM, peter fels <artgawk at thegrid.net> wrote:
>> We have a 5 gallon carboy of the stuff, probably 25 years old, that we've never used, and probably won't.
>> Phoebe ordered it for some process she'd researched, but when it came,we had a little discussion about handling the stuff,
>> and just how nasty it really was.
>> Know anyone in the central CA coast who wants it,cheap?
>> 
>> On Jun 17, 2011, at 12:11 PM, Mike Spencer wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Bruce wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I don't suggest novices even make a solution of lye without wearing
>>>> a moon suit.  (OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but not all that
>>>> much.)  Lye + water = HOT lye solution, spalling droplets of caustic
>>>> into the air that you can smell and which irritate the eyes.  Lye +
>>>> ice + water is less foreboding.  I have dealt with lye all my
>>>> career, and do so now as a when making soap and for some cleaning,
>>>> so I know whereof I speak.  Lye, solid or solution, will destroy
>>>> your eyes if it comes into contact with them.  It can wreck havoc
>>>> with mucous tissue.  Given a little time, it will melt your skin
>>>> like the Wicked Witch of the West was melted by water.  Do NOT
>>>> underestmate the hazards of lye.
>>> 
>>> For once, I agree completely with Bruce's hazard warning.
>>> 
>>> I keep telling people this -- people who, say, casually use lye to
>>> strip old furniture.
>>> 
>>> I wear a face shield and rubber gloves whenever I do *anything* with
>>> lye and have vinegar and eye-wash at hand as well.
>>> 
>>>> Lye can also be considered a "component" of soap, if you look at it
>>>> that way.
>>> 
>>> Well, only in the same way that nitric acid is a "component" of black
>>> powder.  Unless the soap was improperly made, that is.
>>> 
>>> When I was small, my mother always used diluted vinegar as a last
>>> rinse after washing her hair because "it gets the last of the soap
>>> out."  I never undestood that till I was old enough to realize that
>>> she had been taught, circa 1910, how to wash her hair by her Grannie
>>> and her Grannie made the family's soap in a kettle in the yard.
>>> Despite her best efforts with the technology available in rural Texas
>>> in 1900, there was always some un-reacted lye in the soap, enough to
>>> make a mess of your hair if left after a wash.  The vinegar rinse
>>> neutralized it.
>>> 
>>> Also the reason, probably, that getting soap on your eyes was a bad
>>> thing and that the tradition of punishing pottymouths with soap in the
>>> mouth was appropriately  noxious.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> FWIW,
>>> - Mike
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>>>                                                           /V\
>>> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
>>> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bruce
> NJ
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