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Finding Lye in Canada

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Seeker

Seeker

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Hi, first off this web page is amazing!
SWIM is a noob trying his first extraction but lives in Canada and is having trouble finding Lye. The only thing remotely close to Red Devil was a product called Super Drain which contains Sodium hydroxyde. Without a MSDS is there a way to tell if it's pure? Anyone from Canada know where to look other than mail order???
 
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SWIM always uses sodium carbonate (not sodium bicarbonate, that's not the same) instead. SWIM gets great yields with that. He doesn’t see the need for sodium hydroxide (lye). Sodium carbonate is used to wash wine barrels and is sold in food grade form.
 
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SWIM found bulk pure lye at Home Hardware (their own brand). Thanks for the sodium carbonate suggestion though. It may come in handy down the road.
 
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Seeker said:
SWIM found bulk pure lye at Home Hardware (their own brand). Thanks for the sodium carbonate suggestion though. It may come in handy down the road.
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SWIM tried the same at a Home Hardware in BC and checked with the manager - told me it was 95% to 100% NaOH. Is that okay for a STB???
 
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find out what the potential 5% is.. probably not safe.

some products containing NaOH often have heavy metals or other potentially reactive compounds, best to use sodium carbonate or pure NaOH if you KNOW you have it.

no short cuts allowed.

soap stores in canada have it, you can order large amounts for cheap, also look for a regional bio-fuels supply store, people use NaOH to make fuel.
 
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