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Just a heads up for those of you in Maryland who use Everclear for French polish. It was brought to my attention that it will no longer be sold in Maryland after June 30th. I guess I'll have to travel to one of the surrounding states that still sell it. Does Pennsylvania, Virginia or Delaware still sell the 190 proof Everclear?

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Kyle

Or make your own........

Can you get Graves up there? It seems many of the stores around here are carrying Graves instead of Everclear, but I'm not sure Everclear is banned.

Not in Virginia either I am sorry to say.

Welcome to the club... You can't buy it in Michigan either..




It isn't Everclear that is being banned it is 190 proof Grain Alcohol.

Bob

Here in Idaho you can carry a gun to school but can't be trusted with Everclear. Have to go to Oregon for that.

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

You can still buy it at the local grocery stores here in Missouri:-)

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Brad

I bought some in New Jersey a couple of months ago.

I suspect you'll still be able to find something comparable if you know where to look...



Sorry, I'm of no help to you.

Is that you Bill?!?

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久保
美智え

I plead the Fifth...

It can be ordered on line, but the price may be steeper.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

....or a fifth.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Only after 10am though. Stupid blue laws

On a serious note, moonshine will work fine BUT you will want to check the alcohol content. Though it's known for high content most of the time it won't be up in the 90+% range needed for FP. Most moonshiners use a pot still which will not have the high content needed unless the batch is double or triple distilled. Now if they use a reflux or fractioning still then you will probably be good to go. But I'd still check it before using. Don't ask how I know this

Zeke you sure know a lot a about this. You and bill ought to collaborate.

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久保
美智え

Just did a quick search and found out you can order pure ethyl alcohol from scientific supply houses. You can legally buy up to five gallons a year without a permit but there is an excise tac paid to the fed of $18 per gallon

How about do-it-yourself Everclear?

Gelatin is insoluble in alcohol, but it readily dissolves in water warmer than 40 degrees C. When added to cold water, gelatin granules don't dissolve, they swell by absorbing 5 to 10 times their weight in water.

Seems to me that if you knew what the alcohol content was of a given lesser quality alcohol, say cheap high octane vodka, it wouldn't be all that difficult to calculate the weight of the water component in it.

Then you could add a sufficient weight of unflavored gelatin and let it soak for a day before running it through a coffee filter to extract the gelatin granules; leaving you with a very high purity alcohol.

This process would actually yield a two-fer: You could freeze the waterlogged gelatin and heat it up later to make HHG.

There's always a way!

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D..

Wow Dennis hahaaha. I am amazed at the amount of thought that went into this.

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久保
美智え

You can't buy Everclear or it's like up here in BC, Canada and I'm not willing to waste my duty free allowance when I go to Oregon or some state that sells it (yay Scotch)..

I have found 99% rubbing alcohol from the drug store works, BUT you have to read the label as a lot of rubbing alcohol is only 60% ish.. I have also had a friend provide me with some locally produced alternative that was high alcohol content and that worked too but no better or worse than the rubbing alcohol.. the only issue with rubbing alcohol is it takes a bit longer for the flakes to dissolve (even after they are ground)..

Kerry

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

Oh well, gotta think about that! It's not my original idea. it came up in discussion years ago on this very forum. I can't remember who it was, but someone in that thread mentioned that he liked to ease the pain of long French polishing sessions by sipping Surge soda laced with Everclear.

I think he called the drink "Scourge."

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D..

Oh I see, I was just poking fun a little. No harm meant. It is very elaborate though and you can tell someone out there sat down and thought about how to do this efficiently. I got lucky where I love and amazon.de shipped me a bottle 96.4% for around 30€.

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久保
美智え

Yes, 190 proof is available in Delaware.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

How toxic is denatured anyway? Does anyone know the amount of methyl usually in it? With disposable nitrile gloves and good air circulationis it that much worse than using everclear?