On Sat, 6 Aug 2016 20:00:53 -0100, Horace Algier wrote:

Looking for industrial strength solutions I see people advise vinegar
(which seems to weak to me) or maybe even muriatic acid (which seems too
strong), or maybe even ammonia.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/foru...p/t-25046.html

I took three brass fixtures heavy with the greenish white corrosion and
dumped them in three different solutions with three different instantaneous
results...

1. The household vinegar has been acting for about a half hour, and all I
see happening is that the green corrosion is turning slightly blackish, so
I can't tell if it's working yet.

2. The household ammonia has been acting for the same time, where the
ammonia is turning blue, so I guess it's working.

3. The muriatic acid bubbled instantly a bright frothy yellow color, so
"something" happened really quickly. I only let it sit for ten or twenty
seconds, as the reaction was far too great for me to control before I
rinsed it off with the hose.

Do these different chemical reactions to the same stuff tell the chemists
out there anything about whether I have a copper chloride, a copper
sulfate, or a copper oxide that I am trying to get rid of?