The Cleaning of Blades

[kai]

Hello Alan,

I apologize for my slow reply - thanks for keeping the ball rolling!

why does heat remove residual acetic acid?

if heat does remove residual acetic acid, at what level of intensity and duration does this effect begin to occur?

Acetic acid evaporates (as does water) well before reaching the boiling point; this is also the reason why you easily smell vinegar when opening the storage bottle at room temperature. At higher temperatures it evaporates faster. As Jean already mentioned, the boiling point of pure acetic acid is approx. 118°C - if you heat a blade to, say, 120°C for more than a few seconds, you can be sure that all acetic acid is gone (if the working space is well ventilated); vinegar is very diluted acetic acid (about 5%) and behaves closer to water. (This explanation is simplified - let me come up with additional data/info tomorrow.)

I'll try to do some better controlled experiments on the amount of corrosion of steel possibly induced by exposure to diluted acetic acid. This will take a bit longer though - please bear with me...

Regards,
Kai