Talk:Lye

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Hey

Lutfisk is generally Scandinavian, not just Norwegian.

Changing...

J

Caustic lye . can it be used as a stain remove on porcelain ?

Contents 1 Cleanup 2 NaOH? 3 Anti-Merge: Not all Lye is NaOH 4 Anti-merge OK but the whole page should be simplified 5 UK/US usage

[edit] Cleanup

This page was marked for clean-up per MoS:DAB, and deleted the following (IMO non-disambig) information:

Lye is also an ingredient in the synthetic drug, methamphetamine.

Historically, concentrated urine was used as a cleaning agent known as chamber lye. Because urine has some grease dissolving properties it was also used as a mordant in fulling, the preparation of woollen cloth for garment manufacture.

I also deleted the Category:Classical Names. – sgeureka ^t•c 21:38, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NaOH?

I'm no chemical expert, but if the article states that it's NaOH, shouldn't it be merged with NaOH instead? Opinion from a chemist please. Somecrowd (talk) 04:26, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

(Not a chemist), Wikipedia doesn't have seperate articles for Water and H₂O... Pokeman (talk) 09:16, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-Merge: Not all Lye is NaOH

Yes a chemist. Comments: There are several different types of lye. Yes, chamber lye is urine. Potash lye is potassium hydroxide (KOH). Caustic soda lye is sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Therefore, there are several types of lye that are not NaOH and it would be incorrect to merge Lye with NaOH. The reasoning for this is that not all lyes are NaOH. Similarly, not all lyes are sodium hydroxide, so it would be incorrect to merge Lye with Sodium Hydroxide.

This would be as incorrect as merging Bases into Sea Water. Technically, sea water and urine are both alkaline and are considered bases but Bases would be the master category and Sea Water and Urine could be sub-categories. Likewise, if a merge were forced, Lye would be the master category and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) would be one of many sub-categories.

The example of Water and H₂O does not apply and is irrelevant because water is always H₂O and vice versa. However, lye is not always NaOH. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.214.60 (talk) 02:55, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

From a materials scientist: if indeed lye is a master category and NaOH is just one type of lye, the article should be revised to incorporate the different types of lye (i.e. potash lye, caustic soda lye, etc). For now the article presumes that all lye is NaOH, which is apparently incorrect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.153.252.230 (talk) 13:00, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Against - As a user I came looking for Lye and not NaOH and it met my needs. Had a look at NaOH and that article is more suited for a chemist or science lab. Byeboer (talk) 06:27, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I see. The problem is the first scentence "Lye is a corrosive alkaline substance, specifically, sodium hydroxide (NaOH)." Pokeman (talk) 17:19, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-merge OK but the whole page should be simplified

Lye is a generic word describing highly basic ("caustic" = pH around 14) solutions which are usually based on sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in water (typical concentration 30 to 50%). "Solid" Lye is nonsense. I would recommend to keep this page pretty short and giving links (as it is now) to caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), potassium hydroxide (potash), where production processes should be described.Frade 14:27, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] UK/US usage

I believe that use of the word lye is now confined to the USA. In the UK, the word is regarded as archaic and the terms sodium hydroxide or caustic soda are used instead. Biscuittin (talk) 19:36, 17 May 2008 (UTC)