Blackening Salt

Read the Material Saftey Data Sheet, supplied with the stuff by the manufacturer or distributor.

Here is one old formula that was said to give a very durable black nitrate finish.

If I remember right it used 1 pound of ammonium nitrate, 5 pounds of sodium hydroxide to 10 gallon of water. The lye is mostly to rase the boiling point of water high enough 380 to 410 f for the nitrating reaction to to happen.

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-183954.html

This is a dangerous concoction to make up and use. Adding lye to the ammonium nitrate it gives off Ammonia. Adding lye to water can lead to a runaway heating of water if it is added too fast. Once the solution is made up and boiling the water evaporates very fast and has to be made up and if it is made up too fast a bubble of water that boils at 212 f is poured into to a 400 degree liquid and flashes into steam blasting the very hot lye solution all over the place.

I did not give complete information about adding lye to water or the proper containers to do it in. If you use it you do it at your own risk and make sure you understand how to do every step.

Gordon

Hello Rajan Raval:

Can you say why you need to know this? Is it the simple chemical name you want, and, again, why? This is very dangerous stuff. Never worked with it myself, but have seen it at University. It is seriously harmful and you must know what to expect as you go through the process of adding lye etc. It can make glass explode. And is not something you should ever try at home. You need a shed some distance from any dwelling.

Take care, and if you can say the reason/s you want details about this it would be helpful. ...............No offence intended, OK.

babybear

To,

Babybear Asociates.

Hello There,

Thanks,

I verywell Know it is a dengerous stuff, I am in engineering field from last

12 years. At present, I am working in an Automotive Industriy as well.

I just want to know that to increase my own Knowledge, nothing else.

Hello Rajan Raval:

No problems my friend. But even 'Engineers' do not come into contact with the salts you mention very often. I hope you realise I was and am not insulting you in any way?

Good luck with your learning. You can alway write and post to tell us how you got on OK?

babybear

A very useful reference book on the subject is "Firearm Blueing and Browning" by R.H. Angier. It give complete instruction and formulae. It was written before the days of OSHA and MSDS sheets, so you may want to take some precautions.

Hello there,

I thank you very much for the in sequence.