nitric acid

[yip]

  this may have been brought up before, if so soooooo sorry, but here can i buy nitric acid to make rifle stain...........yip

[PPatch]

Are you talking about Ferric Nitrate? If so Google "The Science Company." It keeps well but you'll have to screw the lid on tight and seal it in a plastic bag for the long haul.

dave

ADD; no, Nitric Acid is Aqua Fortis also known as AQ. Sorry, I had brain lock. Do a search here using "Nitric Acid" or "Aqua Fortis" and you'll find many results as the subject is often discussed on ALR. Several here, including me, use the substitute for AQ which is Ferric Nitrate (from the science company). The advantages are you get the same affect as AQ but don't have to follow up with an acid neutralizer such as baking soda or ammonia. It comes in a crystal form which you mix with either water or alcohol.

dave again...

[Joe S]

You can buy nitric acid from many different supply houses.  The acid is fairly cheap, but they’ll charge you fifty bucks or so for shipping because it’s a hazardous material.  Making your own stain is of course the most HC way to go.  However, nitric acid is dangerous to work with if you do not know what you are doing.  

As PPatch mentioned, you can buy ferric nitrate crystals, which is exactly the same stuff you make with nitric acid and iron.  It is much safer to work with, and substantially cheaper.

If you decide to make your own ferric nitrate, inquire on this board for specific instructions before you start.  The eyes you save may be your own.

[rfd]

track of the wolf ...

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/1025/1/AQUAFORT-2

[JCKelly]

If you do decide to use real nitric acid, formula HNO3, pay some attention to where you store it

It wold be a good idea to wear a face shield when handling it. A tiny drop will ruin your binocular vision.

Even in a closed bottle it will give off fumes that thoroughly rust anything you don't want rusted. Like guns, good tools, your old clock &c.

Yeah, I learnt this the costly way, years ago.

Nevertheless, if you wipe your stock with it, then heat it, it will oxidize (burn) to wood to make an interesting color. If you do this with the brass inlays still in the stock, after some months you will notice the brass looks like copper around the edges. This is because traces of that acid slowly remove zinc from the brass.  I learned this one by looking at the work of a very fine maker in the East, maybe at the Baltimore show, in the 1970's. Disremember exactly who and when.

Along with chemistry class.