talkmagic.co.uk

Serendipity wrote:I'm sure I needn't tell you, but Sodium Hydroxide can blind you really, really easily. It also does nasty stuff to your skin.

Trust me, show that stuff respect.

pH 14, innit.

Don't know for certain if it's Tannic acid per se but tannin is easily available from a home brew shop - it's a component of many red wine recipes.
We used to use alum as kids to make wizened apple faces - you might find it in a new age shop as a deodorant crystal, I seem to recall, and if memory serves it's the main thing in styptic pencils that you use when you cut yourself shaving - so at the very least it might be worth having around for when you're collecting the goat's blood.....

Tomo wrote:

Serendipity wrote:I'm sure I needn't tell you, but Sodium Hydroxide can blind you really, really easily. It also does nasty stuff to your skin.

Trust me, show that stuff respect.

pH 14, innit.

*flashback to chemistry lessons*
brrr... that was traumatic..

Serendipity wrote:I'm sure I needn't tell you, but Sodium Hydroxide can blind you really, really easily. It also does nasty stuff to your skin.

Trust me, show that stuff respect.

Trust me chemicals with names that long always make me paranoid. I'm going to be very careful.

why not just change the method to whatever it is you're working on?

It's more about making a prop than a method.

Flash Paper?

No.

Also shortly after starting this thread I found a site that sold most of the ingredients I needed (Sods law), a bit of hunting around and I got nearly everything. The only thing I'm looking for now is pure zinc powder. (As in not in gels or mixed with any other ingredients). I don't know if anyone here will be able to help me with this but I imagine I'll be able to find it shortly after making this post.

Styptic Pencils, used for staunching bloodflow after shaving, are Alum - I think.

I tried to buy Citric Acid crystals recently, we used to use it in home made lemonade etc yonks ago, but all the Pharmacies said they no longer sold it and one guy said it could be dangerous stuff! When I explained what it was they suggested a health food shop but I havn't tried them yet. All I wanted to do was remove the calcium carbonate build up in a stainless steel flask and I didn't want to use vinegar as the taste always seems to linger. In the end I used lemon jiuce which did the trick.

I know your way older than me, but mmmmm.. Lemonade Powder!

Kids today just dont know what they are missing. I mean, who needs soda streem, when you can have a glass of luke warm Yellowish acid.

And on the topic of explosives, how about home made Ginger Beer? The ginger beer 'plant' had to be fed with ginger and sugar every day but halved every week otherwise it would take over the universe and the unwanted half usually got passed on to another household to brew their own. Out of the 10 or so bottles produced each week at least two would explode from the build up of pressure !

my mum tells me that when she was a kid, Grandad used to make ginger beer in a cupboard.
The thing exploded one day, and blew the door off.

That's the stuff!

Am I the only one whose noticed that the story seems to fit perfectly that Mandrake is Dale's grandfather...

if so, I'm better at this seance lark than i thought