I agree that those brass-cleaning 'seasoned' acids do leave a brassy or copper-ish coating on pieces of steel if they're immersed for some periods of time. Its quite similar for citric and phosphoric acids too. They leach out sufficient amounts of copper, zinc, etc from the brass. Some remain in solution, others precipitate out as poorly soluble solids.
Matty, Yes true. Adding sodium bicarbonate to copper sulphate in solution will give you copper carbonate. Adding vinegar to this gives you copper acetate, with obvious filtering etc at different stages. I do believe though that dissolving pure copper in vinegar and hydrogen peroxide is alot easier. And yes, I hear you in regards to obtaining pure metal samples. Cheers Michael
Bloody sad to hear about your experience with the erroneous pure nickel. What about the citric acid idea, though. Not for plating, but for its cleaning quality? I think that our North American friends have access to the powdered form from places such as Walmart and or Home Depo? Can we obtain citric acid in its powdered form easily here? I can't even get calcium carbonate "easily" in the Blue Mountains NSW! It's as if some of the raw, cheap, useful ingredients are not being stocked. In there place is these brand name items for 10 times the price and half as good!
Hi Damien, Citric acid should be readily availabke at Woolworths Coles etc in small amounts. Brew shops also carry it as well as winemaker suppliers. I got some from Winequip in Victoria. Cheers Michael
I used to have to travel to places like Katoomba and Warrimoo to play football (rugby league) against them. Damien, I'm happy with vinegar. I haven't a clue about citric acid.
Thanks Michael. And Matty... you must have hailed from either the Riverlands or Lithgow, I'd imagine.
No, I grew up in Blacktown in Sydney. I played for Doonside, a neighbouring suburb for most of my time in league. I think once Penrith entered, what is now the NRL, the district lines were drawn with Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown, being the end of the Penrith district from the west and the start of the Parramatta district East. Thinking back, I think it must have been around 1970 or '71 that Warrimoo held many of the Semi and Grand Finals for the district. I can't recall ever playing against a club team from Warrimoo, just playing at the fields in Semi and Grand Finals. We played Katoomba and perhaps even Springwood if they ever had a team in our grade. My side generally played in the highest grade of the age division. For that reason I hardly ever played against sides like Penrith, Emu Plains etc. They were generally in the lower grades. I may have played against those sides at school carnivals but I don't think so. My school team from Blacktown, were state champions for 3 consecutive years, so I don't think we would have played the lower level teams. I'm pretty sure the team I played for in Doonside at club level, which formed in 1968, we were the first team to make a Semi Final, Grand Final and the next year win a Grand Final for the club. I bet you are sorry you asked
Here is a tank that arrived today in a very ordinary state. If you blokes can think of a better way to get better results in 30 minutes - give me a hoy.
As my Chinese mate would say, Ed Zachary. I just don't understand how much easier, cheaper and better results can be done. To me, re-usable, non toxic, very cheap vinegar - simply can't be beat. I realise people will still do their things their way, I respect and understand that. Anyone that is beginning their collecting career should look at the results and at least try it.
@ColinG The really impressive thing about this lamp is, it was a working lamp for a long time. It has had a lot of use. Despite that use, there isn't a dent in the fount. Everything seems to be there except a cup for the pump. Any lamp that is troublesome would never have been used so much. I'm starting to be converted and think these lamps were easy to use and ran well. I have passed on quite a few very nice Veritas's over the years because of their bad rap. It actually annoys me I didn't at least buy one of them and see for myself. I'm not into lanterns so the bad rap excuse was a very easy one to use against myself. The cage and the part that the green enamel hood sits on have lost all their nickel and have a lot of rust on them. The green enamel is in poor shape and that is one of the reasons I opted out of collecting lanterns. A lot of them have enamel and I can't stand the sight of bad enamel - which most enamel is, bad.
Yep, you have to search far and wide to find a pristine enamel hood! Maybe an all chrome/nickel plated beauty would suit you more @Matty like a Petromax or an Optimus?
Leura! And Matty, that Veritas is a dead ringer for mine. The decal is the same. I see you seem to have that reddish coloured fibrous washer on the top of the fount! I've had great success with clear vinegar as well. I simply questioned the citric acid because it too is food grade and some areas/countries seem to stock it in the commodity aisles in their general stores, whereas here in the upper Blue Mountains I just get blank looks when I ask about it. It seems clear vinegar may have been a cure all of late, because Woolies was clean out of vinegar as well as TP (toilet paper)!!!
@Matty Wow! There is no getting away from it, the vinegar treatment you use is a winner. Looks like I’m going to Bunnings (a chain of hardware stores for our international brethren) and get a couple of sealable plastic buckets and lids. Then some cheap vinegar from Woolies. Thanks for showing us. Cheers Pete
Citric acid is used as a laundry booster and is sold as Lemishine in North America. It works just as well as vinegar without the odor. When heated it is quite fast at derusting. I use both vinegar and citric acid. I t should be available elsewhere on the planet under different brand names....??
The last lot of citric acid I bought (as powder) was on the Bay of Evil. It was Australian; a large amount; I’ve got a bunch in the shed/workshop, and some in the kitchen (for acidulating apples and the like); and I’m using some to clean up Coleman parts now. I use vinegar as well, but citric acid is always on hand, and is good to mix with wallpaper glue powder to make a cleaning paste. Tony
Gents, I can assure you that the fount was so dirty and gummed up with oil and dirt I had to have a shower when finished because of the smell I had on me. I had to keep washing my hands so I didn't contaminate any tool I used. Colin, interesting. Please tell me more. Are you saying the Petromax and Optimus hoods the same as a Veritas just chromed instead of enamel? Same shape I mean. Because this lamp was gifted to me by @Darryl Durdin I would like it to be as original as possible. I had thought even though it wouldn't be original, removing the enamel and nickelling the hood would be a good compromise. The original hood would remain with the lamp even if it had a non original finish. Pete, you won't be sorry. Don't be afraid to leave non plated parts in overnight or even days. Some heavy rusting can take a couple of soaks over days. The vinegar has an outstanding effect on the grime build up that usually consists of layers of dust that have hardened over the many years. The dust slowly but surely builds a pretty tough film. This was really oil caked. Old kerosene that had been heated and baked by the lamps use over a long time. The sum effort to get the assembly clean was to drop it into used vinegar and the next morning, spend perhaps 30 seconds rinsing it while using a small wire brush. It really is that simple. You don't need to boil or use vibrating doovers or make any special concoction up. As an aside, I wanted to point out the A stamped into the assembly. I'm sure everyone knows that but I'd thought I'd mention it. I think from what I have seen, the A and C lamps were mainly sold in Australia. The cage has come up well. It was very rusty. Looks can be deceiving I need to add here. What looks like rust on the base plate of the cage is some type of material applied at the factory. My guess would be tin. It is also on the bottom part of the cage struts. The cage was in vinegar overnight. I rinsed and brushed the cage this morning, which removed the top layers of rust, then dropped it back into the vinegar. I just pulled it out and brushed it under running water and the cage is finished. Having said that, I do think the cages came with a silver paint on them. I can see remnants of that silver paint. I will seek advice from you Veritas nutters. Here the cage is next to another burner/cage assembly that was very rusty. Don't be fooled by the ring of rust on the other burner, I just didn't rinse properly and it will wipe off. It seems I forgot to take a photo of the cage prior to treatment. Bugger it.
@Darryl Durdin I'll put the fettle all in one topic when I have finished. A few of the bits are good ones to use to highlight the effectiveness of what I was saying about vinegar in this topic. No pricker wire. I should be OK though.
