DIY AquaFortis

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MattRaymond

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So I’ve been all over the internet doing research on AquaFortis. I looked on TOW and other sources for it. It’s available pretty easily in 2oz bottles for about $9, but being that I’m cheap and wanted to do a little experimenting with the stuff I looked into making my own. There are ways to do it with Nitric Acid, some water, add some iron or steel to it slowly until it creates the Ferric Nitrate solution. I looked at several chemical suppliers for it and actually stumbled across a reasonable option on Amazon of all places. I found some in crystal form...500 gram jar... and took a chance on it for $23! It came the other day and I finally got around to mixing some up. With the stuff I got, all you need to do is mix it with water. I used a 1/2 full 16oz water bottle and mixed in about 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons of the crystals. They dissolve almost instantly and create a reddish brown liquid. I decided to try out my mixture on a hickory tomahawk handle. I applied 2 coats of the reagent liquid to the wood and it soaks in pretty fast. I let it dry and I hit it with a heat gun. I kept it about 1-2 inches away from the wood and rather quickly it turns from a pale boring piece of wood to a darker, reddish brown color...kinda like maple syrup color. Once I was pretty happy with the consistency of the color on the handle I hit it with the BLO...WOW! What a difference! It came out great and I’m happy with the results. Here are a few pics of the handle before and after, plus a screen shot of the product I ordered off Amazon. At $23 for 500 grams and I made up about 8 Oz of solution to start...this jar will probably make 50 gallons of AquaFortis! More than I’m ever going to use! I can’t wait to see how it looks on Maple with some figure in it.
 

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