Battery acid is bad

T

trains are bad

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Jan 29, 2004
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This is what battery acid does to VG-10 (which I adore BTW). This is from 2 separate incidents. The damage was done from the acid that got on the blade from cutting the tip off a plastic container. The containers have a cone shaped tip, like a tube of sillicone glue or something, that you have to cut off to squirt the acid into a battery.

In both instances the blade, though it wasn't even evident that it had gotten acid on it at all, was IMMEDIATELY wiped in my shirt, and I walked about 10 feet to the sink and rinsed the blade and wiped it down. The damage did not show until the next day. The reason I repeated the mistake is I did not believe such a short exposure could do it!

So watch that acid. I don't really care as this is my (perfect) work knife, I just thougt I'd share.
 
That's right.....now I remember! Lost a few pieces of clothing myself, that way. Thanks for the reminder.

Larry S.
 
You've seen what this strong acid did to your steel knife. You'll soon see what it's done to your shirt. This is a lesson for you. Always wear gloves and a full face shield when working with this stuff.
 
Next time if that happens, try neutralizing it in a baking soda water solution immediatly.
 
The zip tie acts like an Emerson Wave feature, or at least it can be used this way.

Jeff/1911.
 
Okay, here's a silly question. Is there any way you could mix it with bleach or drain cleaner to neutralize the pH levels? Probably not, since the damage was already done. :confused: :rolleyes:
 
Well, look at it this way; Now your knife has an identifiable "fingerprint" so if it's ever stolden, then recovered, you'll be able to identify it via the photos.:D.
 
Is there any way you could mix it with bleach or drain cleaner to neutralize the pH levels? Probably not, since the damage was already done.
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The damage happens almost instantly. He has already washed the knife with water which essentially neutralized the pH by simply overwhelming it. We're talking about a few drops of acid and if he ran the knife under a sink for even a few seconds it was probably a pint or more of water.

Mixing a strong base such as drain cleaner and a strong acid such a battery acid can result in violent and dangerous chemical reactions often featuring the release of concentrated, poisonous gases.
 
Oh yeah, bleach........Darwin Award time! Pretty shade of green, though. :rolleyes:
 
Gollnick said:
The damage happens almost instantly. He has already washed the knife with water which essentially neutralized the pH by simply overwhelming it. We're talking about a few drops of acid and if he ran the knife under a sink for even a few seconds it was probably a pint or more of water.

Mixing a strong base such as drain cleaner and a strong acid such a battery acid can result in violent and dangerous chemical reactions often featuring the release of concentrated, poisonous gases.
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And that's why I didn't specialize in the sciences. I figured I was probably wrong, but I had to ask anyhow. I remember learning (many moons ago) that mixing a strong acid and a strong base would neutralize each other. Obviously, I wouldn't try it myself. But I had to ask. Thanks.
 
fitzo said:
Oh yeah, bleach........Darwin Award time! Pretty shade of green, though. :rolleyes:
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I didn't say I would do it, I was simply asking the question because I remembered learning something about it a looong time ago. :rolleyes:
 
Oh, you're absolutely right: a strong acid and a strong base will neutralize eachother. But the reaction can be violent and dangerous. You can get a little taste of this by adding lemon juice (a mild acid) to baking soda (a mild base). In this case, the gas evolved is carbon dioxide which is relatively harmless in the quantities we're talking about.

For today's science lesson: this is how baking soda levens food. When it mixes with a mild acid in the food (and there are many mild acids in our food, lemon juice is just one example), it releases carbon dioxide. Those little bubbles of CO2 leven the food. This reaction is accellerated by heat. Baking soda is commonly used in cookie dough. In the heat of the oven, the baking soda reacts with a mild acid inthe dough and evolves CO2 which makes your cookies lighter and softer. This is why, if you watch through the window in the oven, your cookies bubble as they bake. Leave the baking soda out some time and see what you get: hard, flat lumps... with chocolate chips in them. This is also why homemade cookie dough needs to be baked within a few hours of being mixed. The reaction is accellerated in the heat of the oven, but it happens, albeit slowly, at room temperature. Within a few hours sitting at room temperature, the baking soda will all have reacted. Putting the dough in the fridge or freezer can slow it dramatically.

In foods that don't have a mild acid, cooks use baking powder instead. Baking powder is baking soda, which is a mild base, mixed with a mild acid in it in powder form. The two solids don't react very much. Add water and they mix and react. This is why baking powder goes bad over time, though. The two chemicals don't react much as solids... much. High humidity will speed that reaction which is why baking powder used to come in a metal can with a screw-on lid, then a cardboard container with a metalized interior and a tight-fitting lid. Today it comes in a plastic container. The goal is to keep out humidity.
 
jsmatos, I wasn't ranking on you at all, and sorry if it came off that way. I was a chemist in a past time, and saw people with PhD's in chemistry do stoopid stuff like that all the time. One day an overeducated moron decided to neutralize something in his fume hood with bleach. It gave off a huge bunch of gas, went straight out the hood vent, traveled along the roof and got sucked into the freshair intake for my office. (Poor airhandling design, we found out!) I got gassed pretty bad, and coughed for months. There was some lung edema.

That's all I was thinking of, no insult intended. One needs to be very careful mixing bleach with anything. the chlorine can evolve in a couple chemical forms such that when it hits the lungs it combines with the moist surface and forms hydrochloric acid, definitely not good for bio-tissues.
 
Fitzo, that reminds me of the guy I met who was very sick. I asked what happened ? he said he was cleaning a bathroom prior to painting and could it be because he mixed chlorine bleach and ammonia ? I was amazed and told him he made the most dangerous mixture which can be fatal and if not fatal cause permanent lung damage. Don't mix stuff unless you know exactly what it's all about!!!
 
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