So far I've had no luck finding organophilic clays like bentone in Australia apart from one drilling company that wanted upwards of $200 for a 25Kg bag of oil drilling product. I did a trawl of online patents to see how hard the stuff is to make. According to two 1980's patents by Sherwin Williams, it turns out it would be easy if you could get hold of a particular class of chemicals known as "organic quaternary ammonium compounds". According to patents US4474706 & US4474705 if you mix 15-55% by dry weight of dimethyl dihydrogenated tallow ammonium chloride and methylbenzyl dihydrogenated tallow ammonium chloride with bentonite and heat to about 60 degrees C, wash in water and dry, you'll get an organophilic clay. Both these chemicals are used in fabric softeners and are available as industrial chemicals. Buying the bentonite and the surfactants above might be a bit more common compared to bentone in countries that don't drill for oil much. Is it going to be easy to buy these industrial surfactants than Bentone?, probably is if you can find an industrial chemical supplier who'll sell you less than a 200 litre drum. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/97/ef/81/385a79e4d9a4a9/US4474706.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/80/0d/40/b92d1d3aa738e0/US4474705.pdf
One other thing to consider when searching for organophilic clays is that they are commonly used in paints as thickeners and also in cosmetics of all kinds among other things. So, if there is a paint manufacturer near you, it might be worth visit, hat in hand, to see if you could cadge some bentone or equivalent. Denis
