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Old October 2nd 04, 06:29 AM
C. Gates
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Neil Marsh wrote:
Anyone know where to find ammonium chloride, otherwise known as sal
ammoniac, in granular/powder form? (Somewhere in the
Seattle-Portland corridor would be great!) I know welding supply
places can get the stuff in one pound bars but I was hoping to find a
small tub of it in technical grade. Found one place on the Web but
the shipping costs more than the material.


A technique I always wanted to try --ever since learning how to make
jewelry from Robert von Neumann's book The Design and Creation of Jewelry.

He gives several formulas for making the niello -- and using it.

I loved the names of the various formulas for niello: Pliny, Cellini,
Augsburg No. 1, Theophilus, Contemporary Russian, Modern French.....

He also mentions that the armorer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art
uses Handy Flux (a paste flux) thinned to the consistency of milk (for
doing repairs).

Von Neumann does recommend ammonium chloride as a flux, but says that
"an older fluxing technique consisted of painting the metal with a
barely milky borax solution.....

So you could try borax...

I vaguely remember from my science fair days years ago that flashlight
batteries contained ammonium chloride, but this may be my
imagination....don't expect it would be pure, if there at all, or that
you'd want to go soaking some old flashlight batteries.

What fun!

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