Flux & Fire scale

Jewelry Discussion
21 
        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

Thanks Howard. I guess I need to be more careful in specifying such
home brew sources, since as you note, this clearly isn’t even related
to borax, and certainly won’t make a good batch of prips flux.

I wonder if this was the problem encountered by some of the folks
who followed my recipe for the flux. I’m now and then mentioned
borateem as borax…

I wonder if it’s also possible I just remembered the wrong brand,
thinking borateem instead of 20 mule team? Dunno. Whatever the
case, those of you buying borax in the laundry aisle, make sure it’s
borax, OK?

Peter

22

20 Mule Team is still pretty much pure borax. I know blacksmiths
who buy it for a forge welding flux. I keep it around because it is
a cheap source of borax, and makes a killer hand cleaner when mixed
with liquid hand soap. Borateem did become something else
altogether. I know that once it was a mixture of borax and a couple
other things, but I guess that they kept the name and changed the
formulation.

Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org