Talk:Borax

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[edit] Borax Bead

I would love to see some information on the borax bead test.

  • So would I. I will try to find some info to put on here. Physchim62 23:27, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
See Borax bead test (added a seealso to the article). Femto 11:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleaning properties?

Granted that borax has been an ingredient in powdered hand soaps and laundry additives; might be useful to see some discussion useful to a layperson on how it made such things "better". knoodelhed 00:05, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. And regarding this, the Basicity entry in the properties table says "see text", but I don't see the information in the text. --CKL

[edit] Borax as a skin softener

I recently found a recipe for moisturising face cream, with one of the ingredients being Borax. The author claimed it worked as a skin softener, but from what I've read on this site I wouldn't want to put it on my face!!! Can someone clarify this for me?

A problem that the cosmetics industry has is that while they spend billions convincing the public about the efficacy of their products, they have to spend similar amounts of money convincing the authorities that their product doesn't have an effect. I would presume that if this face cream is approved (FDA or whatever) then it is perfectly safe to apply to the skin. I've had borax on my skin in the past without any noticeable effect. -- njh 23:36, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


Re: Borax as a skin softener. I have been dabbling in making my own creams and lotions and I use a solution of water 4 oz and borax 1/4 t or less to bind the water and oils together to form a cream. A cream will hold a peak when expressed, a lotion should not. I use the borax in the creams only to give it a "butter" consistency. I hope this helps you.

By the way... borax is an acid aren`t all cleaning supplies acid?~Brad age 23 ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.206.49 (talk) 21:47, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reference to Margaret Truman mystery novel.

I've excised a reference to borax-laden caviar being important in the (putative) novel "Murder at the British Embassy." It struck me as a fact that wouldn't be relevant or interesting to anyone who wasn't already interested in Margaret Truman's "Capital Crimes" series. Also, a novel by that title doesn't show up in her Wikipedia bibliography, nor a search of Amazon including an exhaustive look at all books for sale written by Truman, nor, indeed, a Google search. So, in addition to sounding a little fannish, it seems like the reference is incorrect.

Furthermore, it is an undelimited spoiler, which is unfair to people who haven't read it yet. -- njh 23:36, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

poop is an ingredient in borax..... right?~ Liz age 22 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.206.49 (talk) 21:51, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Borax to control fleas

Borax sprinkled on carpets and on animal bedding controls fleas without poison. We have never gotten a reaction from human or animal to the borax in our carpets, and we are flea-free.

Some argue that's original research. D e l t i c 22:32, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
It's also questionable whether something with a LD50 of 100-500mg/kg can be said to be not a poison Nil Einne 12:38, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
The toxicity of borax is on par with caffeine or aspirin —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.13.217.231 (talk) 19:37, 23 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Production and availability

What is the yearly production of borax? I tryed that it made more fleas come ~ claire age 19 skipped 5 grades and got 800 on all S.A.Ts —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.206.49 (talk) 21:55, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Disagreement with melting point of borax

I think that the melting point of anhydrous sodium borax is 741°C and anhydrous potassium borax is 780°C. Heating hydrous borax above 105°C releases water, which actually dissolves the borax, not melts it. The boiling point is 1575°C (I checked 20 Mule Team borax with a match, and this sounds closer than the stated 75°C melting point.)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.13.217.231 (talk • contribs) 01:29, 19 January 2007
Could be, but placing a link in the article to the talk page isn't the way we fix things. Mentioning the problem here wil call attention to it by the regular editors - and they will check it out and change if needed. The hydrous nature of sodium borate would seem to indicate a de-hydration prior to melting. However the references listed [1] and [2] do support the values listed. Another option is for you to simply make the corrections based on your sources (not your original research bit). Thanks, Vsmith 02:17, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
This mention of the problem is now over six months old. Are we to assume the 'regular editors' are working hard to check it out? Or are they too busy with their tinpot dictator duties?

[edit] Just a sec...

No one's said anything about borax's use in informal "flubber" or "putty" recipes.~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 01:54, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'References'

There is an error in the references section, (misspelling of eighth as eightth) and when I went to correct it, all I found was an HTML tag </references> that by rights shouldn't be there. No text for the references appears at all. Still, the article page contains several reference entries. What's going on?

Snezzy 00:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Footnotes. The list of references is automatically generated (at the place determined by the <references/> tag) from the individual <ref></ref> tags in the article body. To change the text of a particular citation, edit its corresponding ref tag. Femto 13:45, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

A friend I knew said "Borat" as "borax" lulz —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.129.239.143 (talk) 01:38, 29 November 2007 (UTC)