Lye on Cherry pictures

[Elnathan]

Baking Soda is a base like lye, though weaker.  A baking soda water bath may reduce the action but nothing is really neutralized.  To truly neutralize lye a weak vinegar solution in water would counteract the lye.

My father is a chemistry teacher, and told me once that baking soda would neutralize bases as well as acids. I can't remember why, unfortunately, but because of its unique properties it is widely used in chemistry labs for cleaning spills of any kind of caustic material.

[John Archer]

Baking soda can neutralize a base. It can do this because in water, sodium bicarbonate breaks down ultimately into carbonic acid (H2CO3), an unstable acid, which can then react with a base to neutralize it. This ability to neutralize both acids and many bases is why baking soda is so effective at reducing odors.

John.