Potassium Nitrate?

50/50 salt peter and icing sugar was what we always used for school project volcanos... Makes a thick white smoke and a yellowish "lava". Tons of fun for the kiddies. Can you still ask for it at a drug store???
 
Good luck buying Potassuim Nitrate anymore. I believe it is a controlled substance....
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When I worked in the meat industry we had a supplier that sold 55gal drums full of potassium nitrate.

I call BS on that statement...

I am a chemist and I will legally make any powder/mixture I choose. There are some controlled compounds but they are not typically used in mixtures. Mixtures are "deflagrants" which are only illegal when confined or contained in such a manner that they can cause an explosion. To be convicted, there must be proven intent. Intent requires the presence of an initiator (fuse).
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It is illegal to make exposives without a federal licence. Black powder is a low explosive, NOT a deflagrant. And a match could be used as an initiator so finding one in your possession would likely not be all that difficult.

You can choose not to believe it but the home making of black powder is indeed illegal. It can also be fairly dangerous to the incautious.
 
M12shooter said:
Potassium Nitrate...aka... salt peter makes a good mineral bath. Used to be sold at the drug store...likely still is. When we were kids we would buy it and find coal and sulpher on the rail road tracks. Make our own crude black powder for kicks. That was back in the 60's when kids were cool. Today mine are mostly preoccupied with looking at their phones
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I used to do the same, also in the 60's. Saltpeter from Buckerfields, sulphur from the railway tracks and charcoal from the fireplace.

Kids these days don't have any fun at all!
 
Suputin said:
When I worked in the meat industry we had a supplier that sold 55gal drums full of potassium nitrate.
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Granted, anyone in the proper industry can get it, but PatD can't seem to find it anywhere. Farmers can also get the "proper" fertilizer, but again, it is controlled.
 
762shooter said:
I used to do the same, also in the 60's. Saltpeter from Buckerfields, sulphur from the railway tracks and charcoal from the fireplace.

Kids these days don't have any fun at all!
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Just goes to show you how a few bad actors have ruined things for everyone...

It is harder for farmers to get ammonium nitrate (or they don't want to deal with the BS) these days too - which is too bad cause it makes a much better broadcast fertilizer in hay than urea (which most nitrogen in large non-specialty use is today, that is what most of the white pellets are in fertilizer now). My 2cents.
 
tburdek said:
Just goes to show you how a few bad actors have ruined things for everyone...

It is harder for farmers to get ammonium nitrate (or they don't want to deal with the BS) these days too - which is too bad cause it makes a much better broadcast fertilizer in hay than urea (which most nitrogen in large non-specialty use is today, that is what most of the white pellets are in fertilizer now). My 2cents.
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i recall a popular mechanics mag from the 40s that had recipes for explosives for different uses, like ripping up stumps, scaring off large flocks of birds, knocking over barns, smashing rocks, etc and it was all stuff the average farmer could have on hand at any given time. you just dont see that kind of thing now
 
Mercury is nasty stuff

Greg S said:
I was given some reloading bits- in the box was a container of Potassium Nitrate. Any idea what it's used for?

There was some Mercury too. Is this related to reloading?

Greg S
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HI there.. Mercury is nasty stuff... The elemental form of mercury is not as bad for you ... you know the kind in thermometers... Although i have witnessed people run screaming from the room when another person broke a laboratory thermometer. (not that dangerous) However many derivatives of mercury like mercuric hydroxide is very toxic, likely due to is soluability and ability to be taken up into a biological cell. The reason is that mercury is so bad for you is that it essentially binds irreversibly (cannot be removed in a biological system) to sulfhydral (SH) groups in proteins essentially killing the protein... This is why mercurial derivatives can cause problems like mad hatters disease...

I would suggest that your mercury should be disposed of properly.. Even elemental mercury is not that safe to have a continuous exposure to it ...


RDG
 
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tburdek said:
Just goes to show you how a few bad actors have ruined things for everyone...

It is harder for farmers to get ammonium nitrate (or they don't want to deal with the BS) these days too - which is too bad cause it makes a much better broadcast fertilizer in hay than urea (which most nitrogen in large non-specialty use is today, that is what most of the white pellets are in fertilizer now). My 2cents.
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Is that sarcasm or are you a fudd?
 
pzkw108 said:
Potassium Nitrate, I think it can be used with caustic soda for gun bluing?????????
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Some small metal parts were/are blued by dunking in molten potassium nitrate. Process is called nitre bluing, and produces a unique shade of blue. Winchester used to nitre blue some screws, the fore-end cap on 1886's etc.
 
Nitrate for black powder, mercury for primers, both of which involves chemistry that would be illegal to attempt in Canada. Not to mention you could lose a couple of fingers while figuring it out ..... Nitrate is good fertilizer though if you use it sparingly.
 
Sarcasm, 'bad actors' was a reference to the recent terror attacks and their perpetrators in the last decade. No slight intended to yourself.

It is sad to see the constant erosion of individual rights in modern societies in the name of collective "safety".

762shooter said:
Is that sarcasm or are you a fudd?
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I got in late on the action as in the early 90's just going to the pharmacy, then the dump to find out what the latest batch did, those were the good times ... C-17 just passed, nobody cared and everybody was looking for weird and wonderful ways to dodge it ... Most decided to just not tell anyone what they had ..... ;)

M12shooter said:
That was back in the 60's when kids were cool. Today mine are mostly preoccupied with looking at their phones.
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Farmers can still get it, but it has some sort of "tags" in it these days, so that when some kid gets a handful of the stuff and blows up a mailbox, the cops will know which batch it came from .... And will trace it back to the farmer ...

How the hell it stops a suicidal idiot with a couple tons of the stuff mixed in with the right accelerant and a proper initiator, I will never know.

I guess it goes with the whole "registration" scheme.

Delay ? Maybe, on a good day, stop ? never.

Not to mention what the hell happens 50 years from now when the "tags" start overwhelming farmer's fields ?


tburdek said:
Just goes to show you how a few bad actors have ruined things for everyone...

It is harder for farmers to get ammonium nitrate (or they don't want to deal with the BS) these days too - which is too bad cause it makes a much better broadcast fertilizer in hay than urea (which most nitrogen in large non-specialty use is today, that is what most of the white pellets are in fertilizer now). My 2cents.
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