<<And PS, has anyone here ever tasted eff?  Actually salty?

Chriffftofffer >>

Chris:

I sent an email several years ago to B-P about how to identify 
efflorescence by taste.  Maybe it can be looked up in the files.  There 
were the usual mocking replies about pigeon poop, etc.  Har har har.  
Of course, you have to use common sense when you do this, but I realize 
that common sense is in short supply.  Ken sent me a private email and 
asked me to teach this method at a Preservation Trades Conference, but 
I declined. I actually learned the method in college, but it has served 
me well on job sites, just as long as I do the taste test 
surreptitiously.  The known efflorescence chemicals are not rank 
poisons so you won't just drop dead.  One should just taste the 
material, and then spit, like some vinters do when tasting fine wine.  
However, Epsom Salts is bitter purgative that is occasionally detected 
as an efflorescence.  Some B-P subscribers, especially the Ripple 
connoisseurs, would benefit from swallowing that particular bitter pill.

Steve Stokowski
Stone Products Consultants
 

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