MSDS Information

Mood Ring: Blue

Studio Noise: My Sunday Morning Rounds (CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, Chris Matthews, etc.)

TJDC Photo of the Day:

This is just a close up of the gears of my rolling mill. Sorry, but I didn't realize how dusty the thing is though I keep it covered. I'll probably end up cleaning it off and then re-shooting it because I am NOT Photoshopping out all that dust. I was playing around with my 100mm macro lens trying to get a feel for the difference between it and the 60mm that I just sold. I don't know--I'm not sure I can say which one I prefer at this point.

What I DO know is that trying to photograph stuff in my studio is going to be a challenge--I have a whole lot of stuff, but none of it necessarily lends itself to "artistic" photography. So we'll see. {I haven't quite figured out the HTML formatting for getting this text below the photo, but I will--none of what you would normally use seems to be working, so it must be some sort of TypePad quirk. It's driving me nuts the way it is here.}

So, on to MSDS Information...
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Definition: Commercial Bronze, or the "bronze" that is most commonly used in jewelry today, is a copper alloy that contains zinc--90% copper/10% zinc. It is also a type of brass. Both brass and bronze are copper alloys, but the difference between the two is that most brasses contain copper plus some amount of zinc, whereas most "true" bronzes contain copper plus some amount of tin. It goes without saying that both types of alloys differ in a number of other fundamental ways as well.

So, I was in the process of looking up some safety information about Commercial Bronze, when I decided I'd go straight to its MSDS sheet. I was looking up Commercial Bronze because I have some and was working with it, but then I'd heard that because of its zinc content, its dust and fumes from heating are toxic when inhaled (bummer, and I've already done some sawing, filing and sanding). A post on "working with Commercial Bronze" is forthcoming--lots of really interesting info.

For those who don't know, MSDS stands for Materials Safety Data Sheet, and any given "sheet" contains basic working and hazardous warning information on a number of chemicals. MSDS sheets are not put out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but they are required by OSHA to be made available to workers, employees, purchasers of such chemicals and materials for reference whenever contact or exposure is a possibility. It is *recommended* that all MSDS sheets include:

• Info about the manufacturer (name and contact information)
• Hazardous ingredients/identity information (chemical identity, common names, etc.)
• Physical/chemical characteristics (boiling/melting points, Specific Gravity, appearance, etc.)
• Fire and explosion hazard data
• Reactivity data
• Health hazard data
• Precautions for Safe Handling and Use (including waste disposal instructions, how to clean up spills, etc.)
• Control Measures

All of that info can be found on OSHA Form 174. Again, this information is not required to be included, but is recommended. What is *required* to be included can be found in the body of the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard.

Here's an interesting link to the MSDS FAQ Index. There's some *really* cool stuff on here. There are also some links to the several MSDS databases (some free, some not) where you can find a ton of information. When we place orders that contain "hazardous chemicals," like etching chemicals, etc., MSDS sheets almost always accompany the orders. If they don't and you have questions, you can simply call the vendor from which you ordered and request one. I know that Rio Grande has an online MSDS database of all of the chemicals they sell. You don't have to have an online account to access it, but you do have to know the stock number of the item you're researching.
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Lastly, I post this because as jewelers, the economy *can* affect our bottom line. This is the most logical, non-alarmist/non-fear-mongering conversation about this current financial/economic brouhaha that I've heard to date. I HAD to share. It's from Chicago's NBC5 political talk segment called "City Desk." It's from January 25, 2008, and the title of the segment is "City Desk: The Economy."