Gerstly Borate Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 Does anyone have any ideas of how to get Gerstley Borate in China without shipping or what is an effective replacement for it in Raku glazes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 You can use glaze calculation software to replace it with a boron frit. Gerstley is mainly silica, calcium and boron with some sodium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnolia Mud Research Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 Gerstley Borate is a common name for a mineral of the sodium calcium borate hydrates that ware mined in the western desert in in USA. Other sources of this mineral include Ulexite (a trade mane), Amalgamet (also a trade name), colemanite, . Search for mineral deposits of sodium calcium borates in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Colemanite and ulexite are available in Chile and Turkey and maybe California. They have very high losses on ignition with ulexite probably causing more problems of the two. Gillespie borate is a replacement for gerstley (not a drop in but similar) so you might have more success shipping that. @liambesaw is correct in that Frits may be a better source of insoluble boron. Gerstly borate was mined in California and its primary use was to encapsulate underground nuclear testing. Since that market is gone, the mine was shut down. In or around 2011 Laguna purchased the remaining tons of the stuff laying about the abandoned mine and became a primary supplier for the pottery community which was a tiny consumer of this material compared with the US government. The mine is abandoned and not worth reopening for such limited use. Lots of it still in the ground though if someone wanted to start digging.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 I bought a ton back then (Gerstly borate )and am swimming in it for my life.The shipping will be alot $I would think about the formulation with other ingredients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted April 25, 2019 Report Share Posted April 25, 2019 Anticipating future nuclear underground testing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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