HOW TO USE BORIC ACID AND ALCOHOL FOR A FIRE COAT PREVENTATIVE

Coating your sterling silver, gold filled or karat gold with a fine particle coating of powdered boric acid greatly reduces fire scale during the annealing and soldering (brazing) processes. When heated it creates a gaseous barrier preventing oxygen from reacting with the surface of the metal.

I use a glass pint canning jar with a sealable screw top for the solution.
Add enough powdered boric acid to denatured alcohol so the acid particles are half the volume.
When settled after shaking, the bottom half of the mixture will be white and the top half will be clear alcohol.
For each use, shake the jar to bring the powdered acid particles into suspension then immediately dip your jewelry piece.
Place the piece on your brazing area surface and light the alcohol fumes with a kitchen match or bar-b-que lighter.
Don't dally around as the crystals quickly settle and they will also quickly wash downward off your jewelry if left sitting.
The idea is to achieve a complete, even coating of the boric acid particles all over so you want to shake, dip and evaporate ASAP.
If you don't achieve an even coating on the first try, just re-dip and ignite.
Be careful not to set your jar of solution on fire. Cap it and place the jar a safe distance away before lighting your torch.
While most fluxes contain boric acid, one should next apply brazing flux as one normally would.

John