I live in the city area and strip copper wire for recycling... The blade (knife) is Too slow and Too hard....Burning is NOT an option... I had an associate tell me his dad used an acid..... I can no longer get in touch with this person..... Does anyone know what kind of acid my buddy was talking about... And possablely where I can get some...
Look in the Yellow pages under chemicals and call one of them, they should be happy to help you. They will know and also tell you where to get them at a retail level. If you dont have a Chemical company like Dow in your area, you could try contacting a swimming pool company, they sell acid and can point you in the right direction of who to call to purchase the right type of acid. I think you need Phosphoric acid, but ask someone at the chemical company, dont take my word, maybe you eat up your copper! hehe
Copper is not attacked by nonoxidizing acids and the most common one is (concentrated) hydrochloric acid (HCl) [1] and is readily available in bulk quantities for legitimate commercial uses. Take care handling it: safety glasses, face mask, rubber gloves, rubber apron, rubber boots (water hose on hand). Use in a well ventilated area (in open air?). Containing vessel can be a plastic tub (garbage can for small scale). Any spills: deluge with gallons of water. Try on small scale first. HCl fumes are nasty and gases produced from (just about everything!) reacting with HCl are also toxic. After rxn extract copper with copper rod (not iron!) and wash thoroughly with water). Water from washings should be neutralized with lime or sodium bicarbonate before disposal otherwise the fish will all die downstream and you local conservation officer will not be pleased! Should be concerned about heavy metal pollution too (some copper water pipes of the older variety <1970 in Canada had 10% lead, but that doesn't dissolve in HCl either): have washings tested by a professional analytical company. The other common acids sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3) are oxidizing acids and react with copper (with conc nitric it is vigorous!). I think it will work. Good luck!
