Borax!

[Matthew Gregory]

Hey gang!

I built my forge recently, and although I probably won't get daring enought to try forge welding quite yet, I wanted to be prepared... so, remembering that anhydrous borax is generally pricey ,and unavailable except in HUGE quantities from the manufacturers (like 55 gallon drums! yeeks!), I followed the advice of someone from this forum that mentioned in a seminar at Ashokan (thanks, Kevin!) that if you contact the company directly and ask for a sample, sometimes they'll send you some.

AND they did!

labsamples@borax.com

All I did was request a sample of their product 'Dehybor AB (12 mesh)' and they sent me 2 pounds to try! They do request the name of your business, as well as your intended purpose.

Thought I'd pass this along, and see if anyone else managed to take advantage.

 

[deker]

Interesting to know. Personally I've never had a problem with good old fashioned 20 Mule Team Borax from the grocery store.

-d

 

[scottickes]

Kelly Cupples sometimes has medical grade anhydrous borax. He sold me 2 pounds of it last fall. Kelly is wonderful to deal with.

 

[cadillac forge]

Free is good! I have been useing this recipe for 3 years with great success:

Thoroughly mix together three parts by bulk of 20 Mule Team Borax (just regular supermarket type), two parts by bulk baking soda and one part by bulk common table salt. Heat in oven at about 300 degrees with the door cracked open a bit until it forms a hard cake. Remove from container (such as a cake pan) and crush back to powder form. One method is to put chunks in a 5-gallon bucket and use a sledge hammer as a tamping tool, using a wire shifter to remove larger clumps for recrushing. Bake again and recrush as necessary. When it no longer cakes, all of the moisture has been removed. Store in a dry container.