Hello all,
Regarding this method here are my notes:
I finally worked on the 25s I recently bought, and this method worked the best. I did this a rack at a time in a one gallon bowl 50/50 hot water with simple green and two ounces of dawn. I let them soak for an hour after testing a few and due to the quantity. Some (around 10% were a little more stubborn and I set those aside and repeated the process. I used this method for about 240 chips and it worked well without damaging the chips. This will make the chips dry so i did oil them after and they look great. There is still a hint of hot stamp on a few but they are definitely playable.
In total this took me about six hours but this was mostly prep/ soak/cleanup time. About an hour was spent brushing chips.
I wanted to share a few notes:
I did test this method with a bit of oxidizer as listed above which made the chip come out exceptionally clean. Anything beyond 20 minutes will begin to draw the pigment out of the chips. Due to the quantity I was cleaning and the soak time, I narrowed it down to the degreaser/hot water/regular dawn mix. Which worked very well.
Using a toothbrush worked best for me. A light brushing in a circular pattern (approx. 5x per side) took most of them right off. If you have to scrub, soak them again.
I did try 99% alcohol and this did nothing to the hot stamps. I will say this will make the chips super clean.
I tested some 35% hydrogen peroxide for grins expecting the worst and it made the chip into soup and the inlays and stamps were the only survivors.
As mentioned by
@rieguy avoid the oxidizers.
