Denatured Alcohol for Stones

denatured alcohol

Use denatured alcohol to melt the wax off of stones by soaking the stones in a small jar filled with it. Make sure the jar has a good air tight lid. You do not want to spill any of the alcohol and it also evaporates.

An added benefit from soaking the wax off stones in a jar is that after you have done it for a while the lacquer builds up in the alcohol and this solution can be used for the dopping process.

Alcohol is also used to clean all the surfaces (dop & stone) before dopping.

I use denatured alcohol. It costs a little more than other types of alcohol, but it has the advantage that you can use it to burn in an alcohol lamp, which I prefer for dopping.

You can buy it at any hardware store. A quart goes a long way.

Note: The alcohol will evaporate from your lamp, especially in hot climates. So I only fill it a little bit at a time unless I know I am going to be using the lamp a lot.