The sulphuric -hydrochloric acid- goldfish incident
Back in the day I used to acid etch swords and viking headwear with pretty nordic patterns.
Brass was a piece of piss, ferric chloride used to etch circuit boards did a good job.
You got it splashed onto your skin and as long as you washed it off right away, nothing more damaging than a yellow stain on the skin.
I did once get it splashed into my eye, but the guy with me pushed my head into a sink full of cold water.
A short trip to A&E afterwards with eye drops sorted it out, uncomfortable yes but Ive had worse period pains.
But etching hard steel called for more drastic measures.
I dont know how we ( myself and one other) ended up with this but a solution of sulphuric and hydrochloric acid ( if I remember correctly) seemed the right thing to use, and it did give fantastic results
Carefully mixed according to instructions in a big glass vat.
At first I treated it with utmost respect and fear.
Goggles, gloves, tongs to lower the items into the acid bath, a vat of water close by to dunk the steel into afterwards..
But familiarity breeds contempt and after a couple of weeks I got blase.
Specially as the orders came through thick and fast after folks saw the initial results.
So one afternoon Ive got a pile of swords to etch, dip in acid, then water.
Put it down and pick up the next one.
After several water dips, it should have been changed for a fresh vat but we were on a roll.
I picked up another sword, went to dip it into the vat of acid and somehow managed to knock it against the glass rim, which shattered.
Acid poured out.
We jumped back and yelped as the brickwork started to smoke and dissolve right in front of us.
We are standing there congratulating ourselves at a lucky escape, then going WTF is that smell?
That smell is my shoes disintigrating
Whats that noise?
Thats me screaming as my shoes melt and the acid hits my feet.
He throws the vat of water onto my feet but unfortunately theres a bit more acid than water in it by now and it really doesnt help.
I'm trying to get my shoes off but the laces are a melted mess and my fingers are burning
Now this is all happening in a friends garden, he has a goldfish pond.
I jump into the pond.
Later in A&E the remains of my shoes are cut off, I have some superficial burns to my left foot and have lost one toenail, I'm crying like a baby but its deemed not worth my staying in overnight.
Taxied home after an injection, have painkillers, bandaged foot, some cream and a follow up appt for the next week.
Following day friend wants to know what happened to his garden wall and why are there dead goldfish floating in his pond?
meh!
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Mon 2 Aug 2010, 2:50, 2 replies)

Is this
a poem?
(Monkey the Chicken Twitter: death_stairs, Mon 2 Aug 2010, 10:38, closed)

Nope
why do you ask?
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 1:04, closed)