Disclaimer: English is not my main language...

Hello,

many people keep referring to ammonia to clean hard to clean nibs, rinse converter etc... But where do you get ammonia? Is that the same as bleach?

Store that sells cleaning products. Says ammonia on the bottle. Different from bleach.

---------Michael

Ammonia is a cleaning product. It is in Windex.

Ammonia is one nitrogen bonded to three hydrogen atoms. It is NOT bleach, and you should be advised that due to the chemical properties of bleach and ammonia, a toxic release of chlorine gas will result from mixing the two together. Use them one at a time.

Ammonia is present in urine, though I think for obvious reasons you'll want to find a purer source.

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grocery stores
drug stores

Another name for ammonia is azane.

You'll find it in any grocery store that sells laundry detergents and bleach. If you don't find it near the laundry detergents, look in the section of the store where liquid household cleaners are stocked. It is usually on the bottom shelf. NEVER MIX AMMONIA AND BLEACH...IT FORMS POISON CHLORINE GAS.

You'll find it on the bottom shelf in the cleaning section near where the floor cleaners are. Probably the smallest size will be 1 quart (or liter).

Don't buy the "sudsing" type. And it really will create poisonous chlorine gas if you mix it with bleach.

Back when they used smelling salts for fainting, ammonia was the active ingredient.

In addition to the caution of not mixing ammonia with bleach, do NOT try to directly sniff the stuff. It can cause damage to your sinus linings. I know it sounds like a stupid thing to do, but I've heard about a lot people doing it--kind of an instinctive reaction to sniff.

• Ammonia is not just NH3 which is actually a gas (or frozen down, a liquid too), but NH3 dissolved in water to give a solution of NH4OH.
• Ammonia has a really pungent (not "stinky") smell and is used as "smelling salt" (as a carbonate), you know, when Grandma faints and you 're supposed to wake her up.
• Ammonia is often present (sometimes together with methyl alcohol) in a glass cleaner spray liquid for windows and mirrors.
• Use the last point above or ask anywhere in a pharmacy or any old friend who still studies chemistry for a small bottle of ammonium hydroxide.
• Whatever you use -- like after 5-10 rinses -- don't forget to rinse it all out -- again with 5-10 shots -- of distilled or deionized water (like out of the filter pot used for making water for green tea or an iron for ironing shirts).

Is there such thing as brand name ammonia?

No.

Thank you all for the answers.

I'll check the cleaning section but I'm curious to see what's common brand name there are (and if it is sold directly name ammoniac)!

I don't think you'll find much in the way of brand name ammonia unless you do just buy some Windex (which I have used before in making my own weak ammonia solution for pens with no ill results so far).

Just to add to the cautions about mixing bleach and ammonia, and the resulting chlorine gas. You inhale gasses (in this case, chlorine). The inhaled gas goes into your lungs. Your lungs are moist, as in H2O. When you inhale chlorine gas, an interesting reaction occurs - chlorine plus hydrogen equals hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) BUT your lungs lack the protective mucus lining found in your stomach. Result: nasty acid burns to sensitive lung tissue. Obviously, this is bad. I'd recommend giving any pens you clean with ammonia (or bleach, for that matter) a good thorough rinsing.

Hi
I spent a few years in Montreal (at McGill) and, as I recall, ammoniac wasn't hare to find at... "4 freres" or other supermarkets. If you want a very (VERY) concentrated form, go to a blueprint shop and ask for diazo (I think that's how you spell it....?)
Mompus

As to "ammonia©" solutions (window cleaners) and bleach solutions (usually hypochlorite): you can use ANY of these solutions to clean your pen....

As a matter of fact sometimes it is helpful to use BOTH, alternating... First A, then B, then back to A etc etc. BUT rinse out with water before changing between A and B.... AND don't mix A and B together.

Don't forget that chlorine as a gas was used in World War I.

Regarding mixing bleach (dilute sodium hypochlorite) with ammonia-containing products, you get chloramines not chlorine gas. Neither are good for your lungs.
-Mike

I've used plain old fashioned windex which is basically ammoina and water. Not one of the specialty cleaners just the window cleaner. Or just look in the cleaning section at the market.

In the Chicago area, Ace Hardware sells Parson's Ammonia. Another brand was Little Bo-Peep, but I don't know if that's available anymore.

In the UK, Jeyes sells a plain ammonia with the brand name 'Kleen Off'. I had no joy finding any of it in a supermarket, but eventually tracked down a bottle in the local hardware shop for what I thought was a rather pricey £3.25 ($6.50). This place had a wonderful range of excitingly specialised cleaning products, including gravestone cleaner. Strangely, no TV ads for that one yet. Regretfully passing over such an interesting shoppertunity, I did however bag half a litre of sticky label residue remover, which should see me out and also prevent a lot of bad language.

Has anyone else noticed that since starting with this hobby, you have accumulated a huge assortment of junk you didn't own (or even know about) before? There's the ammonia of course, then the tube of silicone grease (enough to lubricate at least 123,004 pistons), the carnuba polish, the square of brass shim, the jeweller's loupe, the microfibre cloth, the utrasonic cleaner, the sheets of mylar, the Simichrome and so on. Then there's the cupboard to keep all this in, and another cupboard for the inks, something else for the pens (and of course the attendant specially imported flock-lined plastic trays), the pen pouches, the travelling inkwells, the blotters, the blotting paper that goes in them ......

I think people who own horses have it easy, frankly.

John

other names are
Ammonia
Hydrogen nitride
Spirit of Hartshorn
Nitro-Sil
Vaporole
it is similiar name in many european languages.... not sure how to help....
and yes you get it in places where they sell cleaning products... same place where you might find washing powder etc....

+1

If you have ammonia in the house, keep it far away from the bleach. If you go and clean your pen, dont use bleach. If you clean anything in your house, choose bleach or ammonia. If you use bleach or ammonia, you WILL release chlorine gas. This is an irritant, burns the skin, attacks mucus membranes, and is fatal from only moderate doses inhaled a few times. Its an oxidizing agent. Dont mix it with anything but water. Vinegar and even lemon juice can cause the reaction.

The "ammonia" referred to is not pure NH3, but rather is "Household ammonia cleaner", of which Parson's is the archetype. See, for example, here. Buy it online here.

I don't know what the concentration is, if you were to mix your own from chemicals. And it also contains a surfactant.

--John

Had a hard time to find ammonia in Germany. Finally I checked the hardware stores and found it standing beside paint thinner and petroleum ether ....

I thought it was easy: Ammonia comes in GREEN bottles, Chlorine in BLUE bottles. Both are found in your local shop. Or is this only a Norwegian thing?

Must just be in Norway.

That color coding isn't very helpful to men with blue/green color blindness. If they were looking for a good contrast, they could have made a better choice. Something like 5% of all men are affected by color blindness, and blue/green is pretty common among that group.

On the other hand, since ammonia is generally used for household cleaning, maybe they figured the chances of a man trying to find it were pretty slim.

Salut, JFT!

Do they sell the product After-Bite in Montreal? It's ingredient list includes only ammonia 3.5% and 'natural oil.' Don't know if it's pure enough to work for what you need, but it's worth considering.

Misc.

(1) Parsons was the predominate brand of household ammonia in the States for years.

(1a) Didn't buy any for pen cleaning because the only version carried at the local markets was the lemon scented version and I didn't want to run the scent oil through the places I would use it.

(2) It is a cheap and effective cleaner. A half to a cup of ammonia to a gallon of water is a traditional floor cleaner. Stuff evaporates so you don't have to rinse the floor.

(2a) Heavy advertising for premium products like Spic N Span has made this a far less common application than it was when people watched their pennies.

(3) Usually you can pick up 1/2 gallons at places like Wal*Mart, Target, and other warehouse stores.


Good luck