Raw chemicals - where in Europe(Sweden) to get them

[edtbjon]

Well, I hope that the title is descriptive enough.
There are of course firms that sell raw chemicals in Sweden, but as soon as they learn that you are a private person, looking for "relatively" small quantities, and not a company they more or less hang up the phone on you.
So, are there any places in Europe which can sell and send to Sweden.
(I know of SilverPrint in the UK, but shipping from the UK is very expensive. Shipping from the US is even more expensive and probably impossible due to regulations for some chemicals. The best would of course be some company in Sweden, but Germany would also do nicely.)

//Björn

 

[Ole]

The best way I've found is to register a company and buy from VWR.

Since I already had a one-person business registered, I replenish my stocks from VWR whenever I need to.

Anything in particular you're after? I have more than I need of just about everything, and since my small business is in "import, export and trade with photographic materials and services" I could easily export something to Sweden...

 

[AgX]

Björn,

I justed posted this link just for comparison use in the Lounge:

http://www.omikron-online.de/lshop,showrub,21336,d,1183403809-8871,feinchemikalien,,,,.htm

http://www.omikron-online.de/lshop,showrub,21336,d,1183403809-8871,chemthemen.photo,,,,.htm

They will send to Sweden too (not USA, Canada…). However their website is in German only.

 

[edtbjon]

Thank you to both AgX and Ole.
Now I only have to translate the recepies to German (actually, that means to swedish... i.e. it should be more or less the same, shouldn't it Ole...
I'm going to write down a wish-list and work from that. Any further tips are of course welcome.

Cheers
//Björn

 

[Ole]

Just note that "Pyrocatechin" is "Brenzcatechin" in German. All the others should be easy to figure out (it's sold under that name by VWR too, which took me a while to guess)!

 

[edtbjon]

Apart from being very knowledgeable on everything about lenses, Ole also seems to posess psychic abilities. How did he know that my Pyrocat HD have gone smelly and old???

//Björn

 

[AgX]

Isn't he running around with a modern wishbone looking for nordic treasures?
So he might have a crystal ball too...

 

[Ole]

I'm a geologist, so even if I don't have a crystal ball I have a drawer full of crystals.

Once upon a time I did a little dowsing too...

 

[EmilGil]

Björn, check with Svenska Kemi if they can get photographic chemicals too. They sell potassium dichromate as an additive to fireworks.

 

[AgX]

I just realized that the Omikron company has got a second website,

http://www.omikron-online.de/cyberchem/

with basically the same content concerning their general chemicals list, but at least in one case different links to background information about the chemical.

 

[AgX]

Svenska Kemi sells some chemicals which over here are prohibited to/from? private persons. However I did not ask for their English list, so I wonder whether they export those ones too.

 

[Olli J]

Maybe I could help you. I run a small one-man part-time photochemistry business in Finland. I have on my list a selection of photo chemistry (including Pyrocat-HD) and raw chemicals as well. Unfortunately my website (http://www.hopeavedos.fi) is still only in Finnish but you can mail me and tell me what you want.

 

[edtbjon]

Hi all!
Well, I found a friend who will help me with his personal business to make the orders.
Still, I really appreciate all the hints and tips from you all. I guess that this thread might be useful to some others in the future too.

Cheers
Björn

 

[edtbjon]

A little update on chemicals availability etc. to help the next guy.
Omikron in Germany has a nice "search by theme" website, where photochemicals are one theme. I recon the prices are decent too. Most chemicals can be shipped from them but not all. E.g. Pyrocatechol and Phenidone are classified as "dangerous goods" according to the transporting regulations and these kind of items cannot be exported from Germany. (Look for a UN-number in the detailed specifications and you know that restrictions apply.) In that case I had to turn to vwr.se, where prices are higher, the website is incredibly difficult to navigate etc. but at least they ship what I want to buy. What really helped was to copy the CAS-number from the Omikon site and search for that same number on the VWR site.

Again, thank you all for the tips and hints. Links to both Omikron and VWR can be found in the beginning of this thread. Now, if I could find somewhere to buy glycol at a decent price...

//Björn

 

[edtbjon]

Eh, I can bitch a bit more about VWR. They don't accept orders below €100 (1000 SEK) and they need to find your company listed in the phone book.
Just a few years ago you could buy these chemicals over the counter at least in the larger cities in Sweden... I could go on about "things were better...", but I have to refer to other threads instead: Search for either SuperXX, APX25, Polywarmtone ...

//Björn