The brightstar method seems fairly straightforward in theory. What chemicals in that method are surreptitious? The saffarole and sassafras oil are closely watched. Heres a list of the chemicals provided in brightstar: Safrole (160g)(sassafras oil, yellow camphor oil) (Natural/Essential Oil distributor) Dimethylformamide (DMF) (350mL) (Diethylformamide or Formamide will work) p-Benzoquinone (Quinone, Benzoquinone) (120g) (Photo Shop, or Chem supply) Palladium Chloride (PdCl2) (2g) (Photo Shop, or chem supply) Methylene Chloride (DiChloroMethane, DCM) (this can be distilled from automotive solvents (just go into Nationwise, PepBoys, Sears, AutoZone And read the labels) Or a Liter can be bought from a Chem supplier.)(Zip-Strip furniture polish remover) Hg-salt (1 gram of: HgCl2, Hg(NO3)2, Hg(acetate)2, HgCl, It can be anything, and 1g should last you a long time.) Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA, Pharmacies 91% Isopropyl Alcohol will be available)(get +3L)(don't get the 70% stuff) (or you can get pure stuff from a chem supplier) Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulphate) (MgSO4) (grocery store/pharmacy) (Spread out on a cookie sheet, and bake in the oven at 200°C for 3hr to dry them - pretty useless if you don't dry it) Thick Al foil (heavy duty, or pie pans from the Grocery store) Muriatic Acid (31.45% HCl)(Pool pH down, Driveway cleaner, ~3$/gallon) Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) (Drain Cleaner Crystals) (Read these labels, Get the stuff that is JUST NaOH.) (Red Devil Lye, Lye - Hardware Store) Ammonium Chloride (NH4Cl) (Photo Store or Chem Supplier) Paraformaldehyde (Hardware store) (called Mildewcyde or DiGas - made by the same people who brought you Damp-Rid - hint-hint) Peanut oil (this is a high boiling oil that we will use as an oil bath on the hotplate/stirring plate combo) Acetone (for cleaning your glass and crystal work-up) (Paint Section of Hardware Stores) Xylene (for crystallization) (paint section - thinner - get it specifically) The first four are the chemicals concerned about. For information purposes.
The hardest one for you otog et will be the palladium - It's expensive, a listed precrusor, and comparatively difficult to improvise. benzoquinone is ridiculously easy; it's one of the two components used in developing fluid. Safrole? Distill from any number of essential oils. Formamide will need to be picked up from a chemical supply house, but if you get anything less then 99% purity, you'll turn out the dreaded red tar. Mercury salt will be hard to buy, but is simple to make if you CBF.
palladium is a catalyst, and a rare metal... safrole needs to be isomerized to isosafrole via catalytic hydrogenation, this is done with palladium. it is indeed expensive, and likely watched
Mercury shit i hope you know what your doing there is methods out there that you don't need this shit..palladium is a catalyst and if you don't have it you need to make it yourself very big hard job