I found my Kasenit!

[Alan H.]

Bob, First a disclaimer I am not a chemist by education.

As we all know, many compounds are not stable at 1600F! I can imagine that sodium ferrocyanide is one of them and as a matter of fact, that is likely the very mechanism that provides the surface hardening that occurs. I am not sure if its decomposition liberates HCN. HCN by itself is quite flammable and if any is created by the thermal decomposition of the sodium ferrocyanide in Kasenit, I am imagining it would likely immediately combust.

Meanwhile, I would never use anything like Kasenit in closed quarters. Nor would I oil quench, etc. where I would be breathing any of the vapor created. I don't like smelling the smoke off the a cutting tool dabbed with cutting oil.

So your advice for caution is a very good one from my perspective.

 

[Bob Korves]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide_poisoning
http://chemcas.com/msds112/cas/2206/13601-19-9.asp

 

[ch2co]

I can remember when it was 5-6 years old, one of my jobs in the summer was to squirt Cyanogas, from a little can with a longish plastic snout,
into any entrance of the many ant piles around our yard. The stuff had a powerful bitter pungent smell. Killed the entire ant colony in
a single treatment. I don't even remember washing my hands afterwords.

Still around and still Grumpy after all these years.

 

[wawoodman]

Gator,
I suspect we all have stories like that. I remember heating mercuric oxide (?) over a bunsen burner, and playing with the resultant mercury. And putting pennies in nitric acid until they were the size of dimes, so you could use them in the pay phones.

 

[Bob Korves]

I remember my dad bringing us home a jar of mercury, several ounces of it, that we played with and poured it back and forth from hand to hand, without adult supervision. I was about five years old.

 

[pdentrem]

I had seen that Kasenit was no longer available. I had put it in a safe place within a seal container - my gun safe!
Pierre

 

[RJSakowski]

Back in the seventies, as an analytical chemist working for a battery company, I had the task safely disposing of about fifteen lbs. of sodium cyanide from the machine shop. The recommended method was to tie it up as sodium ferrocyanide. I elected to dispose of it by adding bleach. The bleach oxidizes the cyanide to nitrogen gas and carbon dioxide. The reaction was quite vigorous so it was carried out in fume hood, adding a little bleach at a time. It took several days to totally decompose the cyanide but eventually I was left with a tub of salt water. I still have the fabricated stainless steel box it came in. The machine shop wanted no part of it.

Those of us old enough will remember the Gilbert chemistry kits which were highly desirable Christmas or birthday presents. Sodium ferrocyanide was one of the chemicals. One experiment was to make Prussian Blue, the primary component of Dykem or Permatex blue all the scrapers know and love. It was also used for making blueprints, the old blue background type.

Case hardening can be accomplished with a variety of chemicals containing nitrogen and carbon. Urea was often used in historical times, in the form of urine, sometimes that of a virgin, or piles of manure and straw. Since the process of manufacturing of steel in its modern form had not yet been invented, steel was made by carburizing iron which each smithy having its own closely guarded recipe.

 

[RJSakowski]

I can remember when it was 5-6 years old, one of my jobs in the summer was to squirt Cyanogas, from a little can with a longish plastic snout,
into any entrance of the many ant piles around our yard. The stuff had a powerful bitter pungent smell. Killed the entire ant colony in
a single treatment. I don't even remember washing my hands afterwords.

Still around and still Grumpy after all these years.

Maybe that is what made you grumpy?

 

[Bob Korves]

Those of us old enough will remember the Gilbert chemistry kits which were highly desirable Christmas or birthday presents. Sodium ferrocyanide was one of the chemicals. One experiment was to make Prussian Blue, the primary component of Dykem or Permatex blue all the scrapers know and love. It was also used for making blueprints, the old blue background type.

Prussian blue in oil is very good for marking up parts for scraping or for spotting in metal to metal fits. The only downside is how messy it is. You will get it all over your nose, hands, and certain other body parts. Then it is difficult to impossible to ever get it off again. Canode water based dyes are much more user friendly.

 

[chips&more]

After readings about how Kasenit is no longer available and then noticing how cans of the stuff can go for crazy money on fleabay. That got me thinking and going crazy ALL day today trying to find the can I had! Didn’t get much done otherwise, but I did find it! Now I can sleep tonight.