A lesson learned about soaking insulators.

By Chris McClelland; posted May 3, 2014

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Specifically in lye. These 3 pieces went into a lye bath a year ago. They had been soaked in oxalic acid which had removed a good portion of the soot. However, they were still extremely dirty with soot that the O-A would not take off. So, after I mixed the lye and water, as well as allowing the water/lye mix to cool off back to room temps before adding the insulators, I put them in and forgot all about them. Until now...

These pcs *did* have physical chip damages from the word GO, but had no cracks or fractures. I had kept them in my Florida room in an airtight, sealed bucket at room temps for that year and had never touched or moved the bucket. They now have extreme fracturing around them in various, large areas and the glass's surface on the 1 CD 125 in the middle has some severe hazing and pitting.

The lesson learned here is... Don't put one of your favorite pieces in lye and forget about it. I knew that lye was very strong, but I had NO idea that lye could do this to glass.

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