In article , David Starr wrote:
OK, I tried it. Around here the supermarkets don't carry "washing soda"
by that name. But they do have "borax" (20 Mule Team Borax) and a
couple of competitors. I sprang for a smallest box (20oz) of "Snowy
Color Safe Bleach". Ingredients are sodium perborate, sodium carbonate,

Sodium carbonate is the chemical name for washing soda.

and sodium silicate. Plus a lot of other good sounding stuff that
probably doesn't do a thing for pitch.
Mixed it with hot water, 1/8 cup borax to 2 cups hot water, about the
strength you recommended. Dropped in 6 black and sticky router bits and
voila, I could see the black coming off and making the water go dark.

Yep, that stuff goes to work pretty quickly, doesn't it? g

Not bad at all. Let them soak for an hour and then did a bit of
scrubbing. All the sticky clots of pitch are gone, and the black stain
on the metal is much lighter, although not completely gone. Works a lot
better than any of the solvents (alcohol, mineral spirits, lacquer
thinner) that I tried earlier.

If you can get some pure washing soda, it will work even faster. Want me to
send you some? Let me know... my real email address is in my sig, just below.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.