Borax Powder

[Dennis]

Thanks from me too, I guess it's more of the fff. Dennis.

[Joe]

(44, female)

To steal my namesake's line from Friends, "How you doin'?"

I guess it did dissolve eventually then!

[ps_bond]

There is a "borax" now being sold that isn't actually borax - the EU has banned the stuff as a household cleaner, so people are selling sodium sesquicarbonate as a "green" or "substitute" borax. I haven't yet looked in my local Chinese grocers to see if they've succumbed too.

It'll take a little while to dissolve crystals rather than powder, but it might go faster in hot water (or just pulverise them in a mortar). Anhydrous borax (as opposed to the decahydrate form we usually get our hands on) won't foam, which makes it lovely to use in forge welding - it melts and stays on the billet without bubbling up & wandering off elsewhere. Easy enough to make, you just heat it in the forge until it melts, then pour the resulting molten (glass-like) liquid onto a slab of stainless, then grind it once it's cool. A bit much for most uses though - and it'll happily turn back into the hydrated form as it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere.

[art925]

I guess it did dissolve eventually then!

No it still has not disolved Joe, it is from germany - 'Borax Pulver' on the label nothing else. I have been here in the Netherlands for 7 years so it could be so old. I must have bought it from one of my jewellery supliers because borax is not sold as a household cleaner here and my metal container is in my workshop.

...and thanks for the chemistry lesson too Peter.
Anyway it works.