Sulfuric acid will clean the oxide off the copper and it will be bright and
probably frosty.
If I remember correctly it's liver of sulfur your talking about and yes it
stinks. Don't remember it's chemical name and don't remember if it turns
copper black.
Karl


"Don Bruder" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"User Example" wrote:

I don't see how vinegar would neutralize an acid since vinegar is an
acid,
isn't it?

Did you miss this part of his post?

This is a VERY old memory going back to 8th grade art class, so don't
take
it as gospel

But yeah, you're right that vinegar (acetic acid) won't neutralize
sulphuric acid worth diddly. Lye, baking soda, crushed limestone or
gypsum (or all of the above, if you like) would do a good job of it, but
one would want to be *REAL* careful, particularly with the lye, to avoid
getting it flung back in one's face by the reaction.

And sulphur figures into the equation, but I can't recall how. All I
remember is that the stuff we used when we did copper impresssions (I
think mine was about 6th grade - Not sure. I remember that I did a
motorcycle, though ) stunk to hell and gone of sulphur. Had to do
that part outside on the benches around the courtyard, the stench was so
bad. It ws safe enough to give to youngsters our age, so it couldn't
have been *TOO* toxic beyond the smell.

Hmmm... on second thought, that *WAS* 25 years ago... When kids
routinely did things like "chickenfights" on the monkey bars, shooting
off model rockets, swimmming in GASP! The River, shooting the bejeezus
out of the blackbird and crow population for miles around, and similar
things that we now know are life-threatening activities sure to lead to
the extinction of the human race. Who is it with the .sig that mentions
"Used to be we made things a boy could lose a couple fingers on"?

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my
whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text
"PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without
my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more
info