Hello friends. I am posting this here because I used to have a full member account but haven't posted in years, and forgot my login info. So here I am.
I am posting because I made a very exciting discovery today. First things, Bestine is not available at any store in Canada. I have searched for years. Even VM&P Naphtha is something I have never come across. The best alternative was always Ronsonol lighter fluid, however, it is not something you can recrystallize and obtain nice white crystals with. All you end up with is jungle spice, not to say I don't like jungle spice, I have just never had nice white fluffy crystals before, and wanted to compare the experience.

So today I found a not terribly expensive, easily acquirable source of heptane. Motomaster Electrical Contact Cleaner. It comes in an aerosol can. The MSDS says it contains 60-100% heptane, 10-30% Propane (as a propellant) and 1-5% isopropanol. It does require a little bit of preparation before it can be used if you want best results, but it contains no oils or lubricants or anything that will leave a residue.

For best results, a fractional (or simple) distillation should be performed to remove all of the propane, and some of the iso. This is by no means necessary however. Following this, it should be washed with water to remove the remaining isopropanol, but you could certainly get away with only doing a water wash. Just be careful because the propane is dissolved in the heptane, and it takes time to boil out, it CANNOT be stored in a jar or other container unless the propane is removed because the high vapor pressure of propane will cause your container to explode.

In place of a distillation, the propane can be boiled out (ONLY DO THIS OUTSIDE) this will however result in a greatly reduced yield as the heptane with co-vaporize with the propane.

I hope this can help some of my Canadian homies, I have yet to find another source of heptane (with reasonable purifiability) in Canada. Please don't use any of this information to do anything yourself, but if you do, do it outside, or in a well vantilated area away from any ignition sources. Just use common sense. Stay safe <3.

Hey that's great news! I use Ronsonol aswell. I used to have Bestine but have since ran out. I'm in the middle of using Ronsonol for a Re X to try it out but yeah it's exactly looking like jungle though only on the bottom of the jar, the upper portion looks nice and white.

I would have to boil as I don't have a distillation set. So do you just boil it off in a pot on a hot plate for a bit? Would that not evaporate the solvent off?

Yeah as he told it would definetly also make you lose some Heptan. Maybe letting it sit in the free air might also remove propan after some time without losing too much of Heptan.

But that water wash should be very important, otherwise that Isopropanol may greatly pull other stuff and its that one good thing that Naphtha does not pull that alone

I was thinking that if leaving it open to room temperature would get rid of that propane. I'll have to grab some and play around. Any idea how one would know the propane's completely out?

Use Bestine. you can get it at art supply stores.