Bronze Disease | Hacker News Reader

Bronze Disease

brown.edu

102 pointsapophasis10 comments

There’s also tin pest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest

And zinc pest too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_pest

The chemistry may be different, but this seems similar to stress cracking in brass or bronze where ammonia etches along the grain boundaries. [0]

[0] Season cracking is a form of stress-corrosion cracking of brass cartridge cases <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_cracking>

This is fascinating and we don't really understand it. It seems like it should be simple to comprehend compared to actual disease of the biological sort, yet it's not a solved problem.

I wonder what that suggests about the complexity of actual biological disease.

Many hobbiest collectors (in my travels, which is of course my experiences) use 100% acetone soak on metals. A brand known as Renaissance Wax is a popular microcrystalline coating used to inhibit reactions (ive been told its popular with knifemakers as well). Ketchup is a great copper/bronze/brass cleaner while we're here, not so hot on nickel, sort of ok on silver. Titanium and zirconium just don't care how you clean them, aluminum is ketchup friendly.

Is there a reason for using ketchup specifically? Or is it just the vinegar ingredient doing the trick?

It's an extremely mild abrasive in this form (of vinegar, yep) - some folks dilute baking soda in vinegar, I feel that's too coarse myself. One of the mildest silver polishes I know about and use, Blitz (not Flitz) is still grittier than ketchup in your fingers. I only use organic, free range grass fed no corn syrup ketchup, my metal is pampered. /s ;) (you just use your fingers or qtips for the crevices, then wash in warm soapy water, dry well then plop into a sealed glass jar of acetone for a few days)

At first I thought this was going to be about metal fever: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_fume_fever

There is a similar "Teflon Flu" as well which could be triggered by improper usage of teflon coated cookware.

You have to heat the Teflon to just under red hot to cause that. (Red Hot: 460°C, Teflon flu: 450°C.)

This isn't something that's going to happen in normal cooking.

And don't forgot what happens if you use a regular pan with oil, and heat it to that temperature - the smoke you get is equally as hazardous, and you can get smoke at a much lower temperature than with Teflon. Oils smoke at around 225°C.

Upshot is that (at least in terms of overheating) Teflon is much safer than cooking with oil.

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