[TheForge] Flux, was rust & pickling

[Stephen McGehee]

On behalf of Bob Patrick:  Dave Brown, take note:
 My source for the anti caking was off the "Best of the Forge"
July 31, 1997

"This old post got me interested so I just called a U. S. Borax chemist
just

now and he said that anhydrous borax will hydrate in the atmosphere
unless

put in a container to keep the atmosphere out. He also said putting
regular

borax on a cookie sheet in the at oven at 400 degrees or over will

essentially turn it into anhydrous borax. Further, he said that he
doesn't

know of anyone making any kind of flux that uses anhydrous borax as
opposed

to regular borax because the anhydrous borax is more expensive. Lastly,
he

said that the borax you buy in the stores is pure borax except that it
has

an anti-caking compound in it. Borax melts at about 1300 degrees F and
he

said that if it is pure borax, it should be clear or perhaps have a
yellow

tinge to it after melting. I know I've melted what I thought was
chemically

pure borax and it turned into the glassy black mass thing.

Norm Larson

larbooks@impulse.net "


 Stephen McGehee
 Publisher of
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