Subject: Re: Forge welding flux

From: "Bruce M. Freeman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 22:36:02 -0400

At 08:15 PM 6/6/96 -0400, David C. Hufford wrote:

>As for forge welding flux, I've used anhydrous borax.  The 20 Mule Team 
>laundry borax is hydrated and "foams" when applied to hot iron due to 
>release of water; anhydrous will not.  Anhydrous is available from 
>chemical supply companies, but more expensive than the grocery store 
>stuff.  
>
>D.C. Hufford
>
>
I have read, but not tried myself, that you can heat laundry borax over an
ordinary stove and drive off the water.  I think you have to grind up the
resulting mass.  I'll look  it up if anyone's really interested.

Bruce Freeman

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From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 96 00:53:28 EDT

> I have read, but not tried myself, that you can heat laundry borax
> over an ordinary stove and drive off the water.

I make anhydrous borax by melting the ordinary, hydrated kind in a
home-made iron ladle in the forge fire. I don't know the temp but it
glows dull red in a dark room when it's hot enough to pour.

Poured out into an iron bowl or onto a steel slab, it hardens up into
a glassy black-green blob that can be ground as fine as you like with
whatever you've got -- I use an ad hoc steel mortar and pestle. Makes
a slightly greenish powder that doesn't foam when used as a flux.

- Mike
-- 
Michael Spencer               (902) 543-8375
[email-masked]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
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