Working With Antimony Options

Does anyone have experience working with glass of antimony? I am not very experienced with alchemy, but I am just interested in producing the glass for talismans and evocation work (or at least test claims by J. Lisiewski that it works). I recently obtained some antimony trioxide and have had some difficulty working with it.

I first tried a small amount in my furnace at 1500 degrees f. as this is the temp. that antimoy trioxide is supposed to melt at 1200, and it fumed away. It turned orange as it fumed and left a small orange clump that was not glass.

I then tried using my torch, which uses mapp gas and oxygen. Because it fumed away the first time, I tried a mixture of borax and antimony trioxide, 1:1. I heated the mixture in a small crucible, think button sized, and poured a few drops that came out clear. I then tried the same process using a slightly bigger crucible. The problem was the top portion would vitrify(?) but it would remain a powder underneath as the top was heated.

Last, I tried a mixture of borax and antimony trioxide, 5:1. I placed a layer of it within a small circular iron dish, about 2 inches diameter. I heated the layer, which took a long time, which bubbled up then became glass. I then added more powder and continued heating till I had the entire dish bottom filled with molten glass. I placed it in the furnace to let it cool slowly, but it cracked anyways. I did the same process again, re-melting the cracked glass with some more of the mixture. Once again, as it cooled, it developed multiple fractures. I managed to glue them together as I have nothing else to do with broken glass. Oddly, this final piece was of a grey/blue/black color.

The next thing I will try is heating up my furnace to the max, 2100 f., which takes a long time and try using a graphite crucible with enough pure antimony that some glass will form even if it fumes away a bit. This seems like the best idea from the beginning, but with it fuming away in my first test it has me wondering if this will be hot enough.

I have a copy of the Triumphal Chariot, and all it really says is to heat it unless I missed something. If anyone has any experiences I'd like to hear them. I'm tempted to use the glued together antimony disk for a talisman as it doesn't look shoddy.

I do not have the answer myself, yet at least, however although I suspect someone here probably does have the answer directly, I found a book in the library all about antimony - uses, preparation, etc. etc., it's fairly long. It will probably describe more about antimony than you'll ever need to know.

It's in the library here at sacred-magick.com under 'alchemy' near the bottom.

Although i'm interested in practicing alchemy in general, I plan to pursue the manufacture of antimony for the same reasons.

peace
V

I decided to read over Wang Chung's Antimony a bit more thoroughly and found one line that says that "with antimony sulphide the trioxide melts without decomposition, forming the so-called antimony glass." It also says this:

Antimony Oxysulphide, Sb2S2O or Sb2O8.2Sb.2S3.—This can be
obtained by imperfectly roasting the sulphide. The substance thus
obtained, on being melted in a crucible, gives upon cooling a
vitreous mass called " antimony glass."

I unfortunately skipped labs in chemistry class so I'm not sure what the significance is of the sulphide. Is it to act as a flux, as thats what borax does to my understanding. It seems to be the calcined antimony in Triumphal Chariot hasn't had/ isn't supposed to have all of the sulfur burned off yet, being "imperfectly roasted".

I guess I made an error in getting pure antimony trioxide. I'll try again by adding sulfur, or getting the sulphide.

I do not have the answer myself, yet at least, however although I suspect someone here probably does have the answer directly, I found a book in the library all about antimony - uses, preparation, etc. etc., it's fairly long. It will probably describe more about antimony than you'll ever need to know.

It's in the library here at sacred-magick.com under 'alchemy' near the bottom.

Although i'm interested in practicing alchemy in general, I plan to pursue the manufacture of antimony for the same reasons.

peace
V