Darcy Posted January 11, 2014 Report Posted January 11, 2014 The citric acid comment was supposed to refer to citrus stripper. So yes acid on a sword is a bad idea and I should have been more careful. I was thinking of something like citrustrip which you don't want to be touching and does indeed do a good job removing various varnishes and such. But no it's not citric acid. A varnish of tung oil or linseed oil has no solvents. Also URUSHI does not need solvents. The change of the molecular structure during curing is called polymerization. The same goes for polyurethane, but here solvents may be added to lower the viscosity or as accelerators of the chemical reaction. Tung oil and linseed oil varnish do have solvents before they've polymerized, which I think is not what you're talking about. The rest is more an issue of semantics, various strippers attack and break down the polymers and what's left is soluble after being broken down. The issue at hand is more about removing this kind of junk than whether or not a plastic is soluble. It isn't but if you break it down it is. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.