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Muriatic acid is a synonym for hydrochloric acid, and while hydrochloric acid is used in tanning, it is not a by-product of tanning. HCl is made by mixing hydrogen chloride and water, and millions of metric tons are manufactured each year (you should read that wiki article I linked to in my previous post). It's true that you can purchase HCl (muriatic) at varying strengths, but I'm unaware of any variances in strength from one bottle to the next. Operator error when diluting or over/under exposure tend to be the culprits in poor performance.
Muriatic acid is not Hydrochloric acid with bits floating in it. It's HCl and water. That's it. If it's 38% HCl, then 38% of the contents of the bottle are HCl, the other 62% is water. I've just checked the MSDS on 4 different sellers of muriatic, and they're all the same. HCl + water. Now I suppose we could debate which water is cleaner, because there's no ready info on the purity of the water for either chemical I linked to in my previous post. But I might suggest that the difference there is negligible. But if you can provide some hard data from early on in the supply chain showing that one muriatic/HCl is better than another, I'd love to see it.
In quoting my post and telling folks to "never do" what I was recommending, you've forced me to defend my position. But I believe the shoe is now on the other foot.
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