I'm new/sorry/another muriatic Q?

[JsPop1]

I live in a country where if you can believe this, muriatic acid is controlled over diligently. Also, private pools is not considered possible. Is there ANY other substance to remove chrome before gold plating other than muriatic acid or hydrochloric acid?

[mcaswell]

Try - LYE or sodium hydroxide

[JsPop1]

Thanks, I'm researching the availibility of those here now. In the mean time a friend brought me a container of battery acid and said they use this here. Is there any way this will work?

[tbloss001]

the battery acid will work if you use it to deplate the chrome with an electric current, but be careful, as the chome is removed very quickly and if left too long, will start to wear on the nickel underneath.
Lye, or "Drano", the stuff they use to clean stopped up sinks can also be used the same way (dilute by 50% if using liquid drano), and it will not remove any of the metal under the chrome like battery acid (sulphuric acid) will.

If you positively just cannot get muratic acid, see if you can get some "Saniflush" at the local market. It's used to clean toilets.

Mix the "Saniflush" with water until no more of the crystals will disolve.
This will make a weak muratic acid solution that can still remove decorative chrome, but will just take longer.
The chemical make up of "Saniflush" is basically the same as a common jewelers pickel called "Sparex".

Sorry, but I forget the actual proper name of the chemical, I'm thinking something like sodium bisulphate? Anyway, it will have the name on the container of "Saniflush".

REMEMBER. even though it's a common chemical, you still need to use common sense hazardous material handeling rules.