Denatured and Isopropyl Alcohol

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Leather Man

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Can anyone tell me the difference between the two alcohols? Can 91% Isopropyl alcohol be used to wipe cocobolo and other oily woods? Will it be the same as Denatured alcohol? Thanks for your help.
Ben
 
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Fred in NC

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Denatured alcohol is Ethanol, found in all alcoholic beverages. To avoid paying taxes they add some 'bad' alcohol to it, making it undrinkable (causes serious illness and blindness).

Isopropyl is the base for rubbing alcohol. It usually has more water in it. When sold as rubbing alcohol it also has other ingredients that can be oily.

Denatured alcohol dries a bit faster since it has much less water in it. Isopropyl will work and is generally cheaper.
 
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The 91% is a good clue that you are not getting all alcohol. There is 9% of something else in that bottle. Fred outlines the possibilities.

You are better off going to a paint store or department in a home store and getting a quart or gallon of what is sold there. It really isn't that expensive and it is all alcohol.
 

JimGo

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Isopropyl alcohol also reacts differently from a chemical perspective than does denatured alcohol. Fred, I don't meant to be contrarian; I'm just speaking from my own experience. For example, I've had isopropyl alcohol do some nasty things to some plastics (dried out black plastic to the point it turned a very white gray), while DNA does not do this. I haven't tried Isopropyl alcohol on my blanks, mostly because by the time I'm ready for that, I am too excited to want to risk ruining the blank! :)

Good luck, and if you try Isopropyl on Cocobolo, please let us know how you make out!
 

wicook

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I've been using 99% isopropyl alcohol to wipe down blanks (including cocobolo) and find it quite satisfactory. I haven't tried it on plastics. There's not enough water in it to raise the grain on any of the woods I've used it on. It dries almost instantly, too...probably no more than 30 seconds after application. Looks to me like either one works well.
 

JimGo

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Johnny,
It's not bad for that, but it dries very quickly. Great for cleaning, not as great (IMHO) for seeing what it will look like when done.
 
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