Hi Kutter, I've not tried it myself yet , should be next week before I get around to it. The mix is from page 70 in Angiers, it's his own composition and it says...
Zinc Chloride anh 137 grs
Ammonium Chloride 91 grs
Hydrochloric Acid D 1.16 46 grs
Water t.s. to make 1/4 U.S. pt
"This browne is fairly rapid acting and gives a very fine , deep black on both soft and hard steel with a single rusting. Neutralisation required."
Sounds as if it's worth a try. I should have written Zinc Ammonium browne sorry, may have been misleading. I imagine it could be quite aggressive so will run some trials. This mix is to replace (and to save having to use) C.28 from the same book. Small parts can be prepped, then dunked into this mix for a second or so and as long as it's dried quick is more often than not ready to boil off after 3 or 4 hours giving a good deep black with the minimum of surface change in one go. I add some washing soda to the last boil after everything is carded out of habit but this mix shouldn't after rust, just a shame it contains Hg. I don't want to use that unless necessary so thought the Zinc Ammonium mix could make a good replacement.
Last edited by El Garro; 03/07/17 09:05 PM.
