I will have to agree, to disagree, with your above statements.

If you check up on what LYE and Caustic Soda are made of, you will find that they are the exact same item, only difference is what they are called in different countries.

They both are Sodium Hydroxide, and one use of Caustic Soda is in the production of Aluminium, now if you make up a brew of Sodium Hydroxide and drop in a piece of Aluminium, leave it in the solution for 24 hrs, remove it and visually check the the item, you will soon see that a lot of the surface has been eaten away by the chemical reaction of the Sodium Hydroxide.

If you make the brew in a 2 gallon plastic bucket, tip the whole container full of flakes into the water and stir it until the Crystals dissolve, then drop said item into the brew. Please do a test before answering this and if anybody cares to repeat this very simple exercise, then please do and let everybody know what has eventuated. :-)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide