[Jewelry making - Article 00182] - Re: [Orchid] Flux & Fire scale

[FrodoGem]

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> >   Borateem is not borax but I found a box of 20 Mule Team Borax at
> >   the grocery store.  This may have been a divergence from Peter
> >   Rowe's method. 

>       Hmm.  It's been some time since I last bought the stuff.  If
>     it's not borax now, what is in it?  When I last bought it, perhaps
>     ten years ago, it was borax with small amounts of whitening agents,
>     which were the little blue crystals occasionally seen in the stuff,
>     which made no apparent difference to the flux. Does the box list
>     the current ingredient? 

    Peter...sorry for the delayed reply...it took a couple of weeks for
    me to get back to the grocery store to check the ingredients.  It's
    sad what is happening to our "grocery store chemistry set."  As time
    goes on it is harder and harder to find the old time products. 

    Borateem is now sold as a color safe bleach.  Ingredients, as listed
    on the box, aRe: 

    sodium carbonate alcohol ethoxylate (whatever that is, my Merck Index
    is at my office) and sodium silicate 

    I have enjoyed the flux threads.  Chemistry facinates me (but in the
    garage from now on...I learned my lesson, no more cooking in my
    "clean room.") 

Howard Woods
Eagle Idaho


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