Thanks to all who checked out salt bath annealing as a technique for extending life of brass cartridge cases. Ballistic Recreations has ceased to supply any of the products associated with annealing.
If you are in need of resupply of the salt, the material I sold was a blend of nitrate salts, in the following proportions:
Potassium Nitrate: 50% by mass
Sodium Nitrite: 45% by mass
Sodium Nitrate: 5% by mass
Accurate weighing is not too critical, so long as you are within a few
percent everything will work fine. 1kg of the blended salt will last you many years of
annealing.
This blend corresponds closely to the old MIL-S-10699 Type I heat treating salt used by US government armouries for heat treating metals including copper alloys. The salt is still available for sale to industrial heat treaters, for example the AS140 annealing & tempering salt offered by HEF Durferrit.
Anyone wanting to create some of this blend themselves may find that the jurisdiction in which they live may have some restrictions on the ingredients when selling to individuals, particularly for the sodium nitrite. To avoid the NaNO2, some people have also used 50% potassium nitrate / 50% sodium nitrate or 40% potassium nitrate / 60% sodium nitrate. I have not tried either one myself but apparently they have had success. I know the melting points are about 100°C higher, I don’t know what other difference there might be.
Accurate weighing is not too critical, so long as you are within a few
percent everything will work fine. 1kg of the blended salt will last you many years of
annealing.
The only item I offered that occasionally needed repair was the thermocouples. If you are having trouble with yours please feel free to email me, I may be able to walk you through troubleshooting or re-wiring the plug. As of March, 2023 I have a limited number of spares that I can offer as warrantee replacements.
I intend to leave the research articles I created on this webpage as long as I can. And I can still answer some questions about the tools, materials and processes. I may take a few days to respond, but feel free to email me at admin@ballisticrecreations.ca.