Nova wrote:
George E. Cawthon wrote:

Lew Hodgett wrote:

Subject

Lye, AKA: Caustic or sodium hydroxide.

May not be available to the general retail public, but a very common
industrial chemical.

Lew


Oh for Pete's sake. This comes up all the time. Lye is commonly
available in grocery stores and many other types of stores.

Things change. From "Wikipedia" regarding lye uses"

"Illegal drugs

Because it is a key ingredient in the process of making Methamphetamine,
it is now impossible to purchase pure Sodium hydroxide as a consumer
product in the United States. Products containing pure Sodium hydroxide,
such as Red Devil, are no longer available for sale. As a result,
amateur soapmakers must now purchase Sodium hydroxide in bulk."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_...#Illegal_drugs

Bull! the Wikipedia article (if you quoted
accurately) isn't true. You should know that
individuals write Wikipedia and you have to be
rather skeptical of the articles. For example,
look above at the poorly written part that you
quote, "Products containing pure Sodium
hydroxide...." That statement is very strange in
addition to the capitalized sodium. "Products
containing" sounds like you have pure sodium
hydroxide mixed with other things which would make
the sodium hydroxide impure.

In any case, oven cleaners (which are NaOH with a
propellant) are still widely available, as well as
dry NaOH in pound quantities, in the PNW. That
makes the Wikipedia article untrue.