Denatured Alcohol for Stones
Jeff R Graham shares his thoughts on various topics in Just Ask Jeff. See the use of denatured alcohol in Just Ask Jeff: What Kind of alcohol should I use?
Denatured Alcohol for Stones
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.
Jeff R. Graham
The late Jeff Graham was a prolific faceter, creator of many original faceting designs, and the author of several highly-regarded instructional faceting books such as Gram Faceting Designs.
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