Isopropyl alcohol to clean chalk?

I carry a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol which I use to refresh my home made liquid chalk.

It also works really well to erase chalk graffiti.

I don't see how it could do any harm to the rock, but am open to counter-arguments.

It's not super good at actually decreasing the amount of chalk, seems to just suspend the chalk particles, then as soon as it evaporates, there they are again.

Which is fine for turning graffiti and prominent tick marks into white smudges, but doesn't make holds any nicer.

I may try using a cloth to absorb the alcohol before it dries- anybody experiment with this?

From my time working in a gym I have found liquid  chalk turns into a pretty dense paste that cakes onto holds and becomes really difficult to clean. If you are adding liquid chalk to chalk it would be the worst scenario I could imagine. 

Good point, Seb.

But I think it's only some commercial liquid chalks that contain resin-like "grip enhancers."

My home made liquid chalk is just chalk and isopropyl, so I can't imagine it has a similar effect.

Mark E Dixon wrote:

Good point, Seb.

But I think it's only some commercial liquid chalks that contain resin-like "grip enhancers."

My home made liquid chalk is just chalk and isopropyl, so I can't imagine it has a similar effect.

It's not the resin, generally I found liquid chalk user to be fine provided they were a little more experienced, new climbers who used it would generally over apply so you ended up with fat globs of liquid chalk worked into the pores of the holds, they would dry and get impossible to clean off.

I would say, try it out on a random little bit of rock see if it works, if so great, if not, no harm done.