Because I recently had a good scare I thought I might bring the topic to the attn of the forum. If you are refinishing or touching up a gun with Birchwood cold blue or aluma-black wear your ppe. Gloves, goggles, perhaps even a respirator. There's some really bad chemicals in there that can be absorbed thru your skin.
Long story short im just burning off the selenium garlic breath (selenic acid) and the damage is done after refurbishing a 1975 crosman with no gloves on. Theres flouroboric acid and cadmium and nickle sulfate in there, all carcinogenic and in the case of flouroboric acid it can be deadly. I thought I accidentally fatally poisoned myself. Read the Msds and wear your ppe.. Just because it's over the counter and the warning is tiny, doesn't mean it's just to cover their butts.
Long story short im just burning off the selenium garlic breath (selenic acid) and the damage is done after refurbishing a 1975 crosman with no gloves on. Theres flouroboric acid and cadmium and nickle sulfate in there, all carcinogenic and in the case of flouroboric acid it can be deadly. I thought I accidentally fatally poisoned myself. Read the Msds and wear your ppe.. Just because it's over the counter and the warning is tiny, doesn't mean it's just to cover their butts.
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then I looked up flouroboric acid and it said causes calcium deposits in the heart. After some research there's not a ton in the Birchwood stuff, it's 60 percent water. I'm not the safety police, I used to put pellets in my mouth, still use thoriated tungsten electrodes and expose myself to some harsh chemicals regularly. They're just not as agressive as these salts and acids.... And I'm not doing a favor for some terribly behaved grandkids of a friend.